T he way I became a fan of One Direction is far less interesting than the way that fandom nourished and sustained me in the years that followed. It’s possible that the global obsession with the band passed you by in recent years. So first, some context: the five members of One Direction auditioned separately for the UK reality show X Factor in 2010. Unsuccessful as individuals, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne were assembled into a band under the watchful eye of pop savant Simon Cowell and almost immediately began cultivating an intensely passionate global army of fans. The following year, their debut record Up All Night was released and would go on to sell 4.5m copies. Four more records followed before Malik call it quits in 2015. The remaining four members announced the band would go on indefinite hiatus following the release of their fifth record, Made in the AM . Since then, Styles and Horan have enjoyed success with their popular solo rec