Harry Styles has attracted more male fans, but will they be less toxic than his original stans?

Harry Styles has always had a fanbase, and now it’s even more appealing. But it was not that easy to deal with his fantasy of musician-turned-actor.

“As It Was” is Styles’ biggest song of all time, topping the charts in the United States for 10 consecutive weeks. According to the musician, it’s also the song that attracted more male fans to Styles.

In a new interview, Styles told Rolling Stone that the song “certainly brought out the highest amount of men that I would stop to say something about it.”

A recent concert in New York with “As It Was” brought the stadium crowd to their feet. The thunderous reaction surprised even the famous One Direction member. Styles explains to Rolling Stone, “There was something in it where I was… not intimidated, but I just needed a minute. Because I wasn’t sure what it was. Just the energy felt crazy.”

“As It Was” is a sweet goodbye to summer, with a bittersweet chorus of “You Know It Ain’t Like It Was” and a synthetic hook reminiscent of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”. The track begins with a short voice sample: Styles’ own granddaughter saying “Come on, Harry. We want to say goodnight to you.” As the American songwriter puts it, the sample “puts a warm feeling in your heart when you’re invited to the Harry House.”

The song itself – the first single from “Harry’s House” – may not be the attraction for new male fans; Rather it may be its omnipresence. The catchy song is getting a lot of radio plays, brimming with nostalgia for the end of summer, as well as perhaps the perfect soundtrack for the times of the current pandemic. We’re not alike, whatever happens next, and Styles sings it.

Fantasy Beyond Music

But with several movie roles coming out soon, Styles himself is everywhere, as he’s making the rounds of hype ahead of its premiere.

First up is “Don’t Worry Darling,” the psychological thriller directed by Olivia Wilde, on September 23. In it, Styles starred alongside Florence Pugh as a young 1950s couple who move to Company Town Victory, California, where something possibly more sinister lies beneath its picture-perfect vibe.

After meeting on the set of “Don’t Worry Darling”, Wilde and Styles began a relationship, which the latter addressed in various interviews. In particular, he has expressed dismay at the reaction of some fans, particularly on social media, to what Styles calls a “storm of people trying to be awesome”, where Wilde has been the subject of vitriol.

Rolling Stone writes, “The anonymous tweeter stunned at their age difference (as if dating a 28-year-old man with a 38-year-old woman is not entirely normal) and criticized the director-actor dating dynamic (such as There isn’t a long history of dear Hollywood couples meeting the same way).”

Wilde isn’t the first romantic partner to have suffered the toxic treatment of Styles, who for some reason can’t see anyone with him. It’s a parasocial fallout for his fantasy, which seems like who he wants to date. , , And what art does he offer.

Styles’ second film is coming out this fall. The historical drama “My Policeman”, based on the novel by Bethan Roberts, is set in the 1950s and stars Styles as a man who falls in love with another man and is forced to keep his relationship a secret. is done.

The premise of the film, along with Styles’ gender-nonconforming fashion, has led much of the public, including Candace Owens, to be judged on her sexuality, and what she thinks is involved. And it is these assumptions that have given rise to additional criticisms.

“I think everyone, including me, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and being more comfortable with it,” Styles tells Rolling Stone. The musician has never been candid about his sexuality, which has led some to accuse him of queerbiting: a sign of queerbiting as a marketing tactic. “Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only been with women in public,’ and I don’t think I’ve been with anyone in public,” Stiles says. “If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re going to have a public relationship.”

Known for his close and protective ties with fans, it hasn’t exactly been reciprocal, at least not when it comes to giving Styles his personal life. His romantic partners in the past, including famous women like Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner, have been the target of harassment by fans, even receiving death threats.

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Initially coming to prominence as part of the boy band One Direction, it is perhaps understandable that Styles’ first fans were teenage girls, a group he has vehemently defended. He told Billboard in 2017, “Who’s to say young girls who love pop music — short for popular, right? — have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster boy… Music is something that is always changing. There are no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You tell me they’re not serious?”

As Styles has departed from his initial image, his fan base is shifting as well. Styles tells Rolling Stone, just because he’s getting more fans at his concerts that are now male, it’s not a value judgment. ,[I]It’s not that men were the target,” he says. “It’s just something that I noticed.”

Let’s hope these new fans aren’t quite as pissed off about Styles’ personal life and artistic choices as many of his current ones are.