14 DAY TRIAL // Next month, on November 13, to be more exact, tweens worldwide will have twice the reason to be happy, because both Justin Bieber and One Direction are putting out new albums. While Bieber has been trying to kick up a fuss about it, One Direction is staying surprisingly chill about the whole thing.
In some of his most recent interviews, Justin first suggested and then flat-out declared that One Direction had picked that day to release their album, “Made in the A.M.,” knowing too well his “Purpose” was also coming out then. They were trying to ride his coattails.
One Direction says there’s no competition
He might want to reconsider that statement, Niall Horan and Harry Styles say in a new interview for Billboard. They would never pick a release date based on who else is scheduled to put out something new then; nobody in the industry does that, they stress.
Horan points out that some of their previous works happened to come out on the same day as albums from Rihanna, but no one noticed then. Now, because it’s 1D and Justin Bieber, i.e. they’re comparable in terms of sound, image and fanbase, the media is trying to turn a coincidence into a rivalry.
There is no rivalry, Horan says. Neither is there competition, his bandmate Styles chimes in.
“I don't think anyone makes a record with competing with someone else in mind. I think then you don't make it for the right reasons,” Styles explains. “I think we made the record - we're very, very happy with it, we're very proud of it - and now we're putting it out, and it happens to be on the same day as someone else, and that's it. It's not a win/lose thing - it's, we hope that our fans like it, and if it does well that would be amazing, but that's not ultimately what it's about.”
Justin Bieber would beg to differ
While it’s nice of the lads to try and make it sound as if it’s the media who’s putting One Direction against Justin Bieber, it’s Justin himself who started the whole thing, with his comments in a recent radio interview (see the video below).
Asked about the release date of his album and whether he knew One Direction also had something coming out then, he argued that he had called the day first, so that must mean the boy-banders copied him.
It’s ok, he tried to shrug it off, they were only doing it because they wanted more media exposure by having their name associated with him. By simply choosing the same day as release date as him, they were making sure all conversations on “Purpose” would eventually include at least one mention of “Made in the A.M.”
Bieber tried to play it cool, but he sounded (and looked) quite frustrated about it.