Harry Styles and Why He's An Awful Musician

Article by Ethan Jacobs

I’ve always been fairly opinionated about my stance on a lot of music, but I also pride myself in being someone who can listen to almost any genre and pretty much enjoy something about all of them. One of my strongest opinions is probably that of the infamous industry plant Harry Styles. While this article will probably gather a lot of hate, I respect that, but I also wish for you, the reader, to at least put into consideration the words that I am saying. Whether or not you agree is up to you, but I have an essential question, why does anyone still listen to Harry Styles?

I’ve always found Harry Styles to be an anomaly in the pop industry. Where others are bombarded by the likes of Charlie Puth and Ryan Tedder, all I see is Harry Styles, or ‘Harry’ because so many people seem to be on a first name basis with him. Sadly, being a child growing up in the 2010s, the hysteric craze of One Direction was inescapable. Countless One Direction songs were engraved in my brain from their endless radio play. Not only were the songs riddled with bad production and cheesy lyricism, but they were engineered to stick in your head like the squirming little earworms they were. What really hurt about all of it was One Direction being an inorganic mess of British hacks, Harry Styles being the worst of them.

There are a lot of things to value when you listen to music. One thing I like particularly is when songs are written by their singers, or at least members of their respective bands. A trend I notice with a lot of bands I like is, whenever they diverge from their original songwriting skills and collaborate, etc., their quality decreases. One Direction never had any songwriting skills or talent to begin with. Harry Styles might actually even be one of the least talented One Direction members. It’s merely his ‘dreamy’ looks that garner attention.

When Harry Styles was first discovered on X-Factor UK, he could hardly sing. Even as I conduct further research on his vocal type, I am filled with nothing but disgust. Any skills that he might possess now have been drilled into him by vocal coaches or mentors. There’s nothing in his talent that is natural. Now he’s the voice I can’t escape. Whether it be bleeding through the radio waves or a Macy’s advertisement.

When ‘Harry’s House’ dropped last year, I couldn’t evade the constant commercial hype around it. I heard so many people discuss it like a genuinely talented artist had released it. I even listened to Harry’s House to feed into the dreaded promotional craze, or listened to enough of it to turn it off myself. It was genuinely the worst, most derivative music I have ever heard. What hurts though, is that people like it as if it's original in any way, shape, or form. We get it Harry, you listened to the Strokes once and you know teen girls like them so you steal their chord progressions. Yes, I’m talking about As It Was.

So long story short, I hate Harry Styles because he just lacks what good performers have: talent. If Harry Styles actually wrote his own songs or could sing really well (in my opinion he probably has the weakest voice on the radio), I would value his music more. Thing is, I genuinely listen to a lot of pop music. One of my favorite genres of music is soft-rock, which Harry Styles is actually tied to. All things considered, I should enjoy his music. Thing is, he might as well have come out of a factory. He is very insincere and his music is incredibly formulaic. My only wish in the music industry right now would be for Harry Styles’ relevance to fade completely. He is not talented enough to be remembered by history.