One Direction to nostalgic reunion

There's always a chance the original One Direction lineup, (from left) Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan, will reunite. Photo / AP

So One Direction are going in different directions. Deserter Zayn Malik has already fled to start a solo career and the remaining four are reportedly planning a hiatus.

After the release of a fifth album in October and the fulfilment of promotional obligations, the group that was brought together by Simon Cowell on The X Factor will separate in March 2016.

Harry Styles may be off to Hollywood. Louis Tomlinson may become a judge on The X Factor. Liam Payne wants to hone his songwriting skills. Niall Horan is likely to focus on a solo career. Is this, in fact, the most orderly break-up in boy-band history?

Cynical observers may note that there is really only one direction in the narrative of a manufactured teen pop band. It's a boom-and-bust dynamic in which young singers are effectively outgrown by even younger audiences.

Manufactured bands themselves are made of the same volatile material as their audience: youth. Groups assembled for commercial purposes do not tend to have the bonds of loyalty that hold self-created ensembles together. But this notion One Direction are taking a break, not breaking up is, perhaps, recognition of a new factor in boy bands' mayfly lifespans: the chance of resurrection.

The manufactured band trend has arguably been the great triumph of the modern music business - a vehicle that allows the industry to control every element of a pop career.

The one thing their commercial masters have never been able to build into the manufactured band formula is longevity. Until now. In the past decade, a further phase has become apparent in the boy- and girl-band lifespan: nostalgic reunion. Young audiences grow up and romanticise memories of their first pop crush and demand for childhood fads reignites.

There is hardly a manufactured band that didn't split in disillusion and reunite in pragmatism. The new career model is Take That, which broke up after the departure of Robbie Williams in 1996 and reunited 10 years later (initially without Williams), only to become more popular than before.

It may well be that splitting up at the height of your popularity is the most logical step in a manufactured band's career. Fans and detractors alike should accept that this is not the end. It's just a new direction.