Just like last week, this week's stories on Hit Zone were largely dominated by One Direction. This week we were able to carry the live stream of the red carpet for the NYC premiere of This Is Us, plus Liam Payne turned 20 this week. Kendall Schmidt from Big Time Rush also made 2 of this week's biggest stories as he discussed the future of the band at the VMA's and he supported One Direction by attending the NYC premiere of This Is Us. Here's a look at the top 5 most popular posts on Hit Zone this week!
Liam Payne turns 20 years old today! I think it's fair to say that he's probably one of the most talented members (if not the most talented member - no offense to the others of course who are all VERY talented) of One Direction and it's also fair to say he's one of the most underrated members of the band.
So today, on his 20th birthday, I'm here to show Liam some much deserved love that he doesn't get enough of and show you 20 reasons why you should love him (and why he's the quite possibly best member of One Direction) with pictures, gifs, and even some video! Let's get started! It's a rather slow week on Top of the Charts this week. "Blurred Lines" is still #1, Luke Bryan beats out John Mayer to keep the #1 album in the US. On the radio side of things, not a lot stations were in adding mood with Selena Gomez topping most added at top 40 with 34 radio stations. In the UK, the #1 spot on both the singles chart and the albums chart remains unchanged from last week. Here's what's on top of the charts in the US, UK, and Canada.
One Direction hit the stage at Radio City Music Hall for a special performance of "Best Song Ever" on America's Got Talent that aired on Wednesday night (August 28). The boys taped the performance earlier in the week so they could head back to the UK.
It was quite possibly the best performance of the song yet as the boys rocked the stage. Liam was dancing up a storm and all the boys nailed their parts. Special shoutout to Zayn though for that AMAZING high note at the end of the song! Crazy good! The crowd loved the performance so much that some were actually crying. Check out the boys' performance on AGT below! Liam Payne has added to his tattoo collection recently, one of those is a quote along his feather tattoo. It was all a bit of a mystery to fans what the meaning behind it was, but Liam revealed all to ABC's Nightline and ABC's Cynthia McFadden in a all-access interview that aired on Monday night (August 26).
Pointing to his brand new "I Figured It Out..." tattoo on his arm, Liam said: "That's the words from one of our new songs. It's not out yet. That's actually a line at the start of one of the songs. So that will all come into play later on." And although his mom isn't the biggest fans of tattoos, that hasn't stopped Liam getting them, but he says he's quickly "corrupting" her into getting a tattoo of her own someday. "My mom hates tattoos. but [my feather tattoo] has to do with my nan so she likes that one cause it has to do with her mom," Liam said. "That was actually the one that kinda turned her onto tattoos a little more. So she was OK with it." Liam explained: "The feather was a thing, my mom when I was a kid, we would find feathers around the house and whenever she'd find them she'd say it was my nan that was leaving them there for us to find, which is quite sweet." Awwwwww! Just when you think you can't love Liam anymore. And did you know that all of the One Direction boys (except for Niall) have matching tattoos? Well they do! Becky G and Austin Mahone have teamed up for a new song called "Magik 2.0," a cool new collaboration for The Smurfs 2 soundtrack. The song samples B.o.B. and Rivers Cuomo's hit song "Magic" (that's where the whole "2.0" thing comes from) with Austin singing that part and Becky G does some sweet raps in between.
The track is a pretty fun track and seems perfect for the film. In addition to the lyrics, the lyric video contains footage of the two of them in the studio. Check it out below! In a ideal world the boy bands of today would all live happily together in Boy Band Land, but we don't live in an ideal world (I'm looking at you Max George and Louis Tomlinson). But despite tension between certain members of certain UK boy bands, it's good to see that not all hope is lost in the never ending need for our favorite groups to get along.
Big Time Rush's Kendall Schmidt visited to New York City to attend the NYC premiere of One Direction's new movie, This Is Us, on Monday (August 26) and had some fun with the One Direction boys in the process. First off during the red carpet event, which was streamed right here on Hit Zone, Kendall was doing a interview with FOX5 in New York City when Liam unexpectedly came up behind him and started dancing. Kendall went along with it, but unfortunately Liam's security moved him along otherwise I'd imagine we would've had a fun little dance off. It seems like FOREVER since we last heard from good 'ol Conor Maynard, but that's only because he's been off recording new songs for his next album. But now Conor is officially back with his new single called "R U Crazy," and he just released the music video for the song!
The song, which is co-written and produced by his good friend Labrinth, is a step in a totally different direction from his previous hits like "Turn Around" and "Vegas Girl." In the video, Conor seems to bring out his inner Justin Timberlake throughout and near the end it brings you gifs like this. One Direction is the biggest pop group in the world right now, but even with all their fame they still manage to stay grounded and continue to receive praise as some of the nicest guys in music. In a all-access interview with ABC's Nightline and ABC's Cynthia McFadden, the boys revealed how they stay true to themselves and how they've taken more control over their music.
"It's not about being who you were. It's about keeping who you were part of who you are now," Harry said. "We're very rare," Liam added. "But we're so lucky that, you know, our personalities actually blend together so well and we're all quite easy-going." "When we sit down, we can't believe that we get on so well ourselves," Zayn said. "When we talk to each other, we're like, 'How crazy is it that we didn't know each other?'" Liam added: "We literally are the best of friends. We hang out with each other 24/7, and we have a good time." As for not being the stereotypical boy band, Louis said: "We didn't really want to follow the stereotype of the boy band. But we are, obviously, still a boy band. And we're just doing it in our own way." And as I've been telling you for awhile now here on Hit Zone, One Direction is taking more control over their music this time around. Niall plays the guitar while the others are learning instruments as well. And on the upcoming third album, 10 of the 14 or songs on the album are written by the boys. It was widely assumed that when theseason 4 finale of Big Time Rush aired back in July on Nickelodeon that it would basically serve as the series finale. That left the future of the band in question, would they continue as a group beyond the TV show? Billboard caught up with Kendall Schmidt from Big Time Rush at the VMA's on Sunday night (August 25) and he says there's plans in the works to continue doing "something" with the music side of the brand.
"It's not 'official' but we're doing something, that's why they never want to make it official and make some sort of appearance on Nick still," Kendall said about the show coming to an end. "That's a huge brand for Nickelodeon, it's the most successful music brand they've ever had. Period. They wanna do something, we're just trying to figure out what that is." He added: "Now that the TV show is gone, we're just trying to figure out what the music side of it is. I think Sony and Columbia want to keep it together as a music brand and maybe do something like acoustic or something like that." Kendall also hinted that the band plans on touring some more and visit places they haven't been to yet or haven't visited often. You can check out the complete video below. |