The Stages of Love, Songs, and a Band: A Corpus Discourse Analysis of One Direction’s Pop
Albums
Aiden Yeh*, Tzu-Ching Hung, M.A Candidate
English Department, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, 900 Mintzu 1st Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 807
Corresponding Author: Aiden Yeh, Ph.D., E-mail: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the linguistic dimensions of the songs made popular by One Direction–
the British-Irish boy band that captivated young fans around the world in the 2010s. The tailored
corpus output was based on One Direction’s ve albums (65 songs, 21,566 words). Using Voyant
Tools (Sinclair & Rockwell 2016) and discourse analysis framework (Fairclough 1995, 2001),
we examined the word frequency, collocation patterns and semantic references found in the
lyrics. Further analysis was grounded on the 5-stage model of love and relationships by Levinger
(1983). The results suggest that the lexicogrammatical associations found in One Direction’s
songs show that words may have similar meaning but carry a different illocutionary message in
terms of use patterns within a contextual structure. The semantic and pragmatic references in the
lyrics also tell an emotional narrative of a roller-coaster-kind-of-young love and the challenges
they face i.e., exhilaratingly titillating and painfully short-lived. From Oh yeah, baby to Oh, love,
goodbye, love is indeed like a song; its own rhythm has a beginning and an end– a story that
ironically reects the band’s own fate. This study has major implications for corpus discourse
research, particularly in analyzing the semantic references and implicatures of the lyrics and the
story behind them.
INTRODUCTION
Given that the center of popular music lies in the lives
of youngsters, it is important to understand the inherent
messages that make them connect with and liked by so
many. Undeniably, popular music both reects and embod-
ies the lifestyles and issues that young people have. Such
is the case of One Direction, a British-Irish boy band in
the early 2010s; their externally evaluated image is full
of life and hope– beaming with determination to pursue
their dreams. With their good looks and ability to perform,
they became inuential icons in the U.K. In a short time,
their popularity spread all over the world. From their debut
album to their last music collaboration, their songs topped
the billboard charts (Billboard 2021). However, like many
famous boy bands that came before them (e.g., The Beat-
les, The Backstreet Boys, etc.), they went their separate
ways and disbanded. One Direction also fell into a similar
pattern where a member withdrew from the group, which
inevitably led to the fallout. Nonetheless, One Direction
became an iconic symbol of popular music and culture
in the 2010s. The group may now be long gone, but their
songs still captivate the emotions of young people and
those young at heart.
Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.
Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.13n.1.p.70
This study investigated semantic references (Stubbs 2009),
i.e., the characteristics of the lyrics embedded in modern
popular songs, in this case, the songs made popular by One
Direction. This research employed both quantitative and
qualitative methods. The analysis was carried out by com-
piling a self-created corpus of ve albums containing 65
songs (henceforth, referred to as the One Direction Corpus
or ODC). The study was grounded on the theoretical frame-
work of corpus linguistics (Baker, Gabrielatos, Khosravinik,
Krzyzanowski, McEnery, and Wodak 2008; Biber, Douglas,
Conrad, and Reppen, 1998) using Voyant Tools (Sinclair
& Rockwell 2016) for a network-based reading and anal-
ysis of digital text. Further discourse analysis (Fairclough,
1995, 2001) was also made using Levinger’s (1983) 5-stage
model of love and relationships.
LITERATURE REVIEW
One Direction
The English-Irish boy band, One Direction, made their
ofcial debut after winning the third place in the British
televised singing competition The X-Factor nals in 2010
(Kelly 2011). The original members were Niall Horan, Liam
Advances in Language and Literary Studies
ISSN: 2203-4714
www.alls.aiac.org.au
ARTICLE INFO
Article history
Received: November 02, 2021
Accepted: January 07, 2022
Published: February 28, 2022
Volume: 13 Issue: 1
Advance access: February 2022
Conicts of interest: None
Funding: None
Key words:
One Direction,
Corpus,
Discourse Analysis,
Songs,
Semantics
The Stages of Love, Songs, and a Band: A Corpus Discourse Analysis of One Direction’s Pop Albums 71
Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik.
Since their debut in 2011 with the album Up All Night, One
Direction has won many awards, including Brit Awards,
MTV Video Music Awards, and Billboard Music Awards
to name a few. The extensive promotion helped grow their
social media fan base which catapulted their commercial
success as a boy band. They have released ve albums: Up
All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories
(2013), Four (2014), and Made in the A.M. (2015) (Table 1,
Billboard, 2021). All of which have sold more than a million
copies globally and ranked rst on the album charts (Lane
2012; Billboard 2021).
They also produced popular singles such as “What
makes You Beautiful”, “Live While We’re Young”, “Best
Song Ever”, “Little Things”, “Story of My Life”, “Drag Me
Down” and “Perfect” (Table 2, Billboard 2021).
By 2015, the group’s fth and last studio album Made in
the A.M. was released. And their single Drag Me Down set
a global record for most-streamed songs on Spotify with-
out any huge publicity and promotion; this was also the
rst song that was released after Zayn left the band in 2015
(Brandle 2015). Although it was a hit, the band was never
the same afterwards. The remaining four members did not
renew their contracts after their On the Road Again Tour,
and nally disbanded (Newsround 2020). All of them signed
with other recording labels and started their own solo careers
(Melas 2017).
As presented above, the life of a boy band is short lived.
Like other forms of relationships, a boy band is a partner-
ship that needs constant work to ensure cohesive collabo-
ration. Individual member’s personalities and individual
desires may clash with others which could trigger the end of
a band’s life. It is interesting to note a striking parallel to the
narrative of the songs One Direction has written with how
their own story has played out.
Theoretical Framework
In this section, the theoretical underpinnings based on
Levinger’s ABCDE Model and Discourse Analysis will be
discussed.
Phases of love and relationships
The psychologist George Levinger (1983) proposed a
5-stage model of love and relationships, otherwise known
as the ABCDE Model (see Figure 1): (A) acquaintance (a
feeling of mutual attraction arises), (B) buildup (revealing
more of one’s private selves), (C) continuation (long term
commitments such as marriage), (D) deterioration (decline
or relationships falling apart) and (E) termination (ending
or going on separate ways). He propounds that these are the
phases people go through once they have taken the love jour-
ney– from the beginning to the end. Levinger emphasized
the importance of observing the transition phase, moving
from one stage to another. However, according to Perlman
and Fehr (1986), Levinger concentrated on the breakdown
of relationships, more specically on their deterioration. It
is at this stage when couples can see the negative changes
in behavior, i.e., lack of affection, keeping secrets and lack
of openness and/or honesty, etc. Conicts occur as couples
nd themselves being unhappy and yet unable to leave the
relationship due to their interdependence, responsibilities to
the family, or any reason that may prevent them from doing
so (Levinger 1983). It is also in the Deterioration stage
where couples may nd a third party to be attractive and
contemplate on starting an illicit affair. Although Levinger
developed his theory which only addresses heterosexual
relationships between adults, it has no obvious limitations
when applied to any other type of romantic relationship.
Discourse analysis (DA)
The focus of this study is on the values, meanings, and forms
of knowledge that song lyrics intended to convey. Discourse
Table 1. Summary of studio album by one direction
S/N Released
date
Studio
album
Summary
1 18 November
2011
Up All
Night
Being young, relationships,
heartbreak, and youth
empowerment.
2 9 November
2012
Take Me
Home
Falling in love, unrequited
love, commitment, jealousy,
self-empowerment, and
yearning
3 25 November
2013
Midnight
Memories
memories and
transformation, heartbreak,
and sexual desires
4 17 November
2014
Four
nostalgia and looking
forward to the future
5 13 November
2015
Made in
the A.M.
confession and saying
goodbye
Table 2. Most popular singles by one direction
Studio
Album
Song title Released date YouTube
views (By 8
April 2021)
Up All
Night
(2011)
What makes
You Beautiful
11 September 2011 1.2 billion
One Thing 6 January 2012 690 million
Take Me
Home
(2012)
Live While
We’re Young
28 September 2012 680 million
Little Things 12 November 2012 360 million
Midnight
Memories
(2013)
Best Song
Ever
22 July 2013 710 million
Story of My
Life
28 October 2013 890 million
Four
(2014)
Steal My Girl 29 September 2014 370 million
Night
Changes
14 November 2014 400 million
Made in
the A.M.
(2015)
Drag Me
Down
31 July 2015 930 million
Perfect 16 October 2015 460 million
72 ALLS 13(1):70-81
Analysis (DA) is an interdisciplinary research method where
texts of ideology or discourse are used as tools (Fairclough
1992). Its theoretical basis is mainly derived from the subject
knowledge of post-structuralism discourse theory and crit-
ical linguistics, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, lit-
erary theory, and language philosophy (Fowler et al. 1979).
Van Dijk (1993) pointed out that the research purpose of
discourse analysis is to nd out the structure, strategy, and
textual features that play a role in reproduction. Fairclough
(1995) proposed the so-called three-dimensional analysis
framework: text analysis (description), processing analysis
(interpretation), and social analysis (explanation). The anal-
ysis between texts focuses on linking the language used in
the text with the social context (Fairclough 1992), such as
books, magazines, newspapers, and songs. In the process of
analysis, it explores the ideology implicit in discourse and
seeks the dialectical relationship between discourse and
social conditions (Figure 2).
The main aim of corpus-based methodologies (Biber
et al. 2007) and discourse analysis is to point out areas of
interest and allow for more in-depth analysis, as “the con-
text plays a part in determining what we say; and what
we say plays a part in determining the context” (Halliday
1978 p.3). In other words, it is an examination that involves
searching for specic pattern of occurrences within contex-
tual structures. These measures include the compilation of
corpora, frequency list of words and word clusters, com-
parison of keyword lists and, most importantly, analysis of
concordances (Egbert & Baker 2019). The corpus output
can give clues to semantic references and lexicogrammatical
patterns that are found in the text. A semantic reference is
the linguistic expression (word/lexicon) used to point out or
allude to an object or subject in a context (Martinich 2012;
Frawley 2013). Lexicogrammar, introduced by Halliday
(2013), is a combination of lexical and grammar patterns,
i.e., lexical patterns in a grammatical structure. Understand-
ing these patterns in everyday expressions and communica-
tions strengthens one’s sense of perception (Sinclair 2004).
Hence, semantic references and lexicogrammatical patterns
are critical parts of comprehending language (Pearce 2007)
and how people express their thoughts and feelings in var-
ious social and cultural contexts (Gledhill 2011). In a nut-
shell, corpus discourse analysis can shed light to linguistic
applications and the pragmatic intentions of the users, thus
going beyond the semantic meaning of the words.
Research on songs
There are two basic questions that applied linguists often
raise when doing research on pop songs: what the linguistic
features of pop songs are and how popular songs promote
language learning and education. For instance, Nishina’s
(2017) study investigated the various characteristics identi-
ed in the lyrics of modern popular songs ranked in the Bill-
board Hot 100 chart for ten years (2002-2011) to grasp the
description of this genre and provide basic data useful for the
design of future English materials and their detailed devel-
opment. Based on the outcomes of the beginner learning sur-
vey, the use of popular songs was an effective educational
method to have, and such learning materials can serve as
catalyst for students who lack the motivation in learning
English.
Another recent study by Cheung and Feng (2021)
focused on a specic genre of construction– heavy metal.
Their research looked at the asymmetric power relation-
ship between cultural/religious institutions and disobedient
people, as well as identity construction related to cultural
politics and religion. They found that metal lyrics usually
convey a sense of insecurity, alienation, sadness, and desire
for death and redemption in emotional terms. Metal lyrics
highlight the core values of conquest, condemnation of war
and anti-hypocrisy.
Eiter’s research (2017) was based on corpus linguistic
perspective in investigating non-standard features of English
in the lyrics of pop songs released in 2012 to 2015. The nd-
ings suggest that the lyrics of pop songs, as written-to-be-
sung language, apply non-standard functions. However, he
mentioned the need to further study the registration methods
of pop songs, i.e., variant syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and
sociolinguistic variables.
Due to the limited corpus discourse analysis studies on
pop songs, this study lls the gap in research by focusing on
One Direction’s album collections on the theme of love and
relationships.
acquaintance
buildup
continuation
deterioration
termination
Figure 1. The 5 stages of a relationship proposed by Levinger
(1983 p.67)
Figure 2. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model (1995 p.98)
The Stages of Love, Songs, and a Band: A Corpus Discourse Analysis of One Direction’s Pop Albums 73
Research Questions
This study will therefore address the following research
questions:
● What are the semantic and lexicogrammatical refer-
ences used in One Direction’s songs?
● What is/are the linguistic evidence on the stages of rela-
tionships found in One Direction’s albums?
METHODOLOGY
This study combined both quantitative and qualitative research
methods, and as Baker et al. (2008) state, mixed method is
a “useful methodological synergy” (p. 273) with the help of
a corpus linguistic approach. A self-created corpus of songs
from One Direction served as data (ODC). 65 song lyrics from
their ve studio albums were selected, and the lyrics were
compiled from AZLyrics (https://www.azlyrics.com/), a web-
site for popular song lyrics. A web-based digital texts read-
ing and analysis program, Voyant Tools (Sinclair & Rockwell
2016), was used to perform corpus analysis (Baker et al., 2008;
Biber et al. 1998). It was carried out to examine word patterns
extracted from collocations and consistency data, as well as
pattern strength based on collocation trends, word frequency
and word selection (visualized in Cirrus/Word Cloud), and the
overall relative inuence of these semantics. This study also
applied Fairclough’s (1995 2001) three-dimensional model of
discourse analysis (DA) as the framework for analysis. The
results were further examined using Levinger’s (1983) 5-stage
model of love and relationships.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The ODC was categorized into ve documents based on
the ve studio albums One Direction released from 2010
to 2016. Each document reects the songs included in the
album. In total there were 65 songs. One album contains
12-14 singles (the average number for a studio album).
The ODC has 21,566 words, an average of 4313 words per
album, and 1,369 unique word forms (Table 3).
The longest document (4829 words) was the Midnight
Memories album (2013), and the shortest document was the
Made in the A.M. album (4329) produced in 2015:
Document Length:
• Longest: Midnight Memories (2013) (4829); Take Me
Home (2012) (4621)
• Shortest: Four (2014) (3275); Made in the A.M. (2015)
(4329)
Voyant Tools automatically lter the most common words
(or stop words) in a language such as the, is, at, which, on,
etc. to limit and narrow the results for processing data (text).
In Figure 3, the ve most frequent words in the ODC are oh
(360), know (241), yeah (195), I’m (182), and baby (167).
The relative frequency of the count highlights the distinctive
words in each album. By comparing the syntax to the rest of
the corpus, the highlighted words give the synopsis of what
the narrative for the album is about. For example, in Midnight
Memories, the distinctive words were story, white, ready,
singing, and Diana. One can easily surmise that memories
are made of stories, and this is what is relevant in this album.
Below is a list of the 12 most frequent keywords in the
corpus:
(1) oh
(2) no
(3) yeah
(4) say
(5) alright
(6) rock
(7) it’s
(8) ooh
(9) whoa
(10) na
(11) baby
(12) you’re
The top 12 words from the corpus are displayed in Cirrus
(Word Cloud)– a visual graphic analyzer tool in Voyant that
shows a collection of frequently used words in the corpus
(Figure 4). A word cloud is a powerful visualization paradigm
that illustrates the relative frequency of keywords in terms
of font size– the bigger the font, the higher frequency of use
for that word in the data (Heimerl, Lohmann, Lange, & Ertl,
2014). The results are presented in a cloud-like gure which
is composed of a cluster of words depicting various font sizes
(Viegas, Wattenberg, Van Ham, Kriss, and McKeon, 2007).
Lexical Links and Frequency
The Links tool in Voyant shows the Collocates Graph with
the keywords and terms (tokens) that are closely related and
presented in the form of a graphical network. In corpus lin-
guistics, collocation refers to the number of words or terms
that appear in sequence at the same time more than acciden-
tally (Kjellmer, 2014). Corpus Collocates in Voyant Tools
is a tabular view in which terms appear more frequently in
close relation to keywords in the entire corpus. The user can
view its frequency and collocational strength in the corpus
Table 3. Summary of corpus size
Studio Album Singles Words
Up All Night (2011)
13 4512
Take Me Home (2012)
13 4621
Midnight Memories (2013)
14 4829
Four (2014)
12 3275
Made in the A.M. (2015)
13 4329
Total 65 21,566
Figure 3. The corpus summary
74 ALLS 13(1):70-81
by moving the mouse and dragging the surrounding canvas.
In Figure 5, three keywords in blue are displayed: oh, know,
and yeah, as well as the light gray lines indicating the link(s)
of these terms. The keywords are closely matched with the
following words in orange: say, rock, baby, and alright. The
word oh is linked with baby, you’re, ooh, and whoa. The
reason for the linkage is due to the coinage of phrases such as
oh baby, oh you’re, you’re oh, oh ooh, etc. These terms were
used in the lyrics to denote endearment, surprise, pain, dis-
approval, sympathy, agreement, etc. The word yeah is linked
with baby, rock, and say. Yeah is an informal term and an
afrmative reply for yes. Therefore, the phrases in which
Yeah was used such as Yeah baby, yeah rock, yeah say have
relatively similar denotation. Another term is know which is
linked with baby, alright, and it’s.
Figure 6 displays the Word Trends of the corpus, which
not only visualizes the relative frequency of keywords, but
also represents the frequency of occurrence between docu-
ments in the corpus or in each segment of the document.
Each series in the pane is colored according to the word it
represents; the legend shows which words are associated
with which colors at the top of the pane. It will automatically
display the ve most frequently used words in the corpus; in
this case they are oh, know, yeah, I’m, baby.
The Trends tool also displays the frequency or word
count; when clicking a dot on the line graph, it will display
the specic text and highlight all instances (occurrence) of
the word. For example, in the expanded list of Terms in
Figure 7, the chosen word was Kiss which has 44 counts.
The graph shows that Kiss was used in all ve albums, how-
ever, its highest relative frequency appeared in three albums:
Made in A.M. (2015), Up All Night (2011) and the highest
peak in the graph Take me Home (2012) with a relative fre-
quency of 6,276 across the corpus.
Semantic Preferences
Through a detailed study of the top ve words, interesting
ndings can be found. Since the ve albums revolve around
the theme of love songs, it can thus be seen that the lyrics are
mainly related to relationships, either romantic or platonic.
The lyrics convey normal love situations that many can relate
to. The ve most frequently occurring words include interjec-
tions and personal pronouns: oh, know, yeah, i’m, and baby.
One Direction used a lot of interjections in their com-
positions because they express various emotions, such as
surprise, joy, excitement, anger, or sadness. Interjections
are analyzed in the discourse aspect of marking function
and hence have been called discourse markers (Schrifn
2001). They have no grammatical connection with the rest
of the sentence structure, but they are connected in meaning,
and their inclusion in any utterance would add feelings,
thus making the whole phrase an expression of emotion.
The meanings of interjections will change according to the
contextual (grammatical) structure in which they are used.
According to Stubbs (2009), there is a relation “between a
lemma or word form and a set of semantically related words”
(p. 65). Interjections can be used independently or placed in
the context of an accompanying sentence. The word oh, for
example, may indicate surprise, disappointment, or happi-
ness. And the word yeah (i.e., yes, spelled the way it is often
spoken) means a very strong afrmation or identication.
The examples in (1) and (2) below show a few instances of
interjections oh and yeah from the ODC.
Oh love (1a) is part of the term of endearment in English,
and so is oh baby (1d), a term of endearment which can have
different illocutionary effects depending on how it is said.
Thus, oh baby can sometimes sound sweet when expressed
in a cajoling manner. Oh can also be used as a sexual inter-
jection in a more explicit sexual context as in the lyrics, And
let me kiss you oh, baby, baby, don’t you know from the song
Take Me Home. The expression Oh I wish I could (1b) is
often used to express hope, i.e., a desire to do something.
Figure 4. 25-word Cirrus output for ODC
Figure 5. Links- collocate graph
Figure 6. Trends pattern for ve most frequent words
The Stages of Love, Songs, and a Band: A Corpus Discourse Analysis of One Direction’s Pop Albums 75
However, the meaning changes when it is used to convey
regret, e.g., Hey angel oh I wish I could be from Midnight
Memories.
(1) a. So pour me a drink, oh, love. Let’s split the
night ---Four (2014)
b. Hey angel oh I wish I could be ---Made in the
A.M. (2015)
c. ever I think it went oh, oh, oh I think it---Mid-
night Memories (2013)
d. And let me kiss you oh, baby, baby, don’t you
know ---Take Me Home (2012)
e. gotta be you only you oh girl, can we try one ---Up
All Night (2011)
In many of One Direction’s songs, the colloquial word
yeah is widely used. As an informal interjection, yeah (2a)
and (2e) can be explained as it is so or as you say or ask,
where it is being used to agree, afrm, or accept facts/truths.
Sometimes, repeated use of the word will show the impor-
tance of the message. For example, yeah, yeah, yeah of
(2c) could mean I couldn’t agree with you more. However,
depending on the utterance, it could also mean “not likely”
when one is being ironic. And if yeah, yeah, yeah, is said
while interrupting the person talking, it is equivalent to say-
ing rudely, “I already know that- so get on with it!” The yeah
in 2d is placed in between two identical sentences which
indicates “yes” or a conrmation of the excitement or accep-
tance of the situation.
(2) a. til I’m out of luck, yeah, I roll and roll ---Four (2014)
b. I could be more yeah I see you at the ---Made in the
A.M. (2015)
c. oh I think I went yeah, yeah, yeah I think it ---Mid-
night Memories (2013)
d. So I’m coming back yeah, I am coming back for---
Take Me Home (2012)
e. love you more than this, yeah. When he lays you
down ---Up All Night (2011)
Another word that frequently appeared in the ODC is I’m,
which is classied as a personal pronoun. There are three
types of personal pronouns: rst-person refers to the person
who speaks; second-person refers to the other person who
speaks; and third-person refers to the person and thing being
mentioned (Huddleston 1984). Obviously, I’m is the abbre-
viation of I am, which is relatively colloquial. The use of the
rst-person is a self-declaration, addressed to oneself. The
pattern I’m in singular present tense “be” means one exists–
a state of being or feeling as in the examples (3) below.
(3) a. I think I’m gonna lose my mind ---Four (2014)
b. When you go and I’m alone ---Made in the A.M. (2015)
c. This time I’m ready to run ---Midnight Memories (2013)
d. So I’m coming back for you ---Take Me Home (2012)
e. Whenever you kiss him, I’m breaking ---Up All
Night (2011)
The other two words know and baby appear in the sec-
ond and fth most repeated words. Know is dened as to
(a) understand, (b) be aware of or (c) be familiar with some-
one or something. By looking at the examples in (4), we
can clearly see that the term know plays an important role
in determining a certain and denite tone in a sentence. In
addition, know is sometimes used together with you in inter-
jections, especially as informal speech llers. The phrase
You know is very commonly used in speaking as a discourse
marker which signies to be or become cognizant, to check
other’s understanding, and to comprehend what the content
of the conversation speakers are saying. When using you
know, it is assumed that listeners do have the knowledge that
speakers want them to have. Hence, know is frequently used
in One Direction’s love songs as shown in Excerpt 4.
(4) a. And I know in my heart, you’re just a moving part---
Four (2014)
b. Baby don’t you know we can live forever ---Made in
the A.M. (2015)
c. You know I’ll remember you ---Midnight Memories
(2013)
d. If I let you know I’m here for you ---Take Me Home
(2012)
e. If you walk away, I know I’ll fade ---Up All Night (2011)
As mentioned earlier, the term baby is often used as a
colloquial word to address a romantic partner, such as wife,
husband, or partner (Bruess & Pearson, 2002). This is an
affectionate way of addressing someone dear to you. As
shown in Excerpt 5, the semantic references and patterns
where baby is used signify an intimate close relationship. It
is softer and more convincing than calling a sweetheart by
name directly.
(5) a. Cause nobody knows you, baby, the way I do ---Four
(2014)
b. Oh, baby, I was there for you ---Made in the A.M.
(2015)
c. Don’t look back, baby. Follow me ---Midnight Mem-
ories (2013)
Figure 7. Word trends
76 ALLS 13(1):70-81
d. Baby, you don’t have to worry ---Take Me
Home (2012)
e. Everyone else but you baby, you light up my world--
-Up All Night (2011)
Semantics and Lexicogrammatical Issues on the
Discourse about Relationships
The acquaintance phase: Up All Night (2011)
As with song lyrics, contemporary artists write about their
experiences and feelings about things that matter to them:
love, heartbreak, camaraderie, motivation, sexual desires,
identity, etc. In other words, idealism of youth is wrapped
within the (en)coded messages of these songs– and this is
what connects young audiences to pop artists and their songs
(Haider 2021).
The content of One Direction’s 2011 album Up All Night
reects the initial phase of liking someone. It falls under
Levinger’s Acquaintance Phase- the rst stage of love and
relationships. In this phase, attraction begins with knowing
each other. When two individuals meet and immediately hit
it off, they feel attracted by each other’s appearance, body
language, or similar interests and decide to establish a rela-
tionship. They form an impression of each other based on
their moods, goals, and values. The songs on the album are
titled Everything about You, Stole my Heart, and What Makes
You Beautiful, which are all about showing and expressing
love and wanting (fancying) someone.
Love can be very simple, as exemplied in Excerpt 1. In
this song Everything about You, the lyrics tell a story about a
boy who is trying to express how much he loves everything
about her: her personality, appearance, voice, etc. Although
for some, love can happen at rst sight. Reading the lyrics
from Stole my Heart in Except 2, it can be fully understood
that it is a song about a boy who falls in love with a girl at
rst sight. In a sense, she “stole his heart” with her look.
Excerpt 1.
It’s everything about you, you, you (everything about
you)
Everything about you, you, you (everything about you)
It’s everything that you do, do, do (everything about you)
It’s everything about you
Yes, I like the way you smile with your eyes
Other guys see it but don’t realize that it’s m-my loving
There’s something about your laugh that it makes me
wanna have to
There’s nothing funny so we laugh at n-n-nothing
“Everything about You” from Up All Night (2011)
Excerpt 2.
Under the lights tonight, you turned around
And you stole my heart, with just one look
When I saw your face, I fell in love
Took a minute girl, to steal my heart tonight
With just one look, yeah
Been waiting for a girl like you
“Stole my Heart” from Up All Night (2011)
The lexical token you in One Direction’s songs has 63
counts, and the highest frequency is in the hit song What
Makes You Beautiful. Almost every line contains the word
you. This song is about a boy who strives to boost his part-
ner’s self-esteem by telling her everything that is good about
her. The songwriter, Savan Kotecha, stated in an interview that
he gave about how the song was conceived (Schillaci 2013).
He recalled that day when his wife was having a bad morn-
ing and saying Oh, I feel so ugly. He responded by reassuring
her, No, you look beautiful. You don’t know how beautiful you
look. That was an a-ha moment for him, which gave him the
inspiration to build on the lyrics of what could be a potentially
good song with the right melody and chorus. The song carries
a positive message that sometimes to show affection means
being nice and supporting the person we love when they feel
low or insecure. Insecurity or the lack of condence is a com-
mon dilemma for teenagers. Hence, they can easily relate to
the lyrics and are simple enough for them to understand.
Lastly, the album titled Up All Night tells a narrative of
invincible youth. Young people have the energy to stay up
all night feeling either so happy or melancholic. There are a
lot of party-anthem songs in this album, therefore, the lyrics
tell a story about late parties with some hot girls and nding
someone to fall in love with for a night and watch the sun-
rise, as in the line I wanna stay up all night and jump around
until we see the sun (Excerpt 3).
Another interesting nding is the correlation of the words
want and loved. These tokens have positive correlation
(0.978) which also suggests that their term frequencies vary
in sync, i.e. Their frequencies rise and fall together (Figure 8).
It is also fascinating to see how these words are used in
context, thus giving us a storyline based on word usage. The
illocutionary meaning takes on a different level according
to the grammar used. As mentioned earlier, wanting is very
much part of teenage love. Looking at the context below
(Figure 9), the word want was repeated many times. The
phrase, that’s crazy, I want, want, want shows I (subject)
taking an active stance directly acting upon its verb (want).
Whereas the succeeding line, I want to be loved by you is in
passive form which means the subject is at the receiving end.
The contextual clues suggest that this person wants to feel
appreciated and cared for.
Another song related to night is Save You Tonight, where
a boy falls in love with a girl who was mistreated by her
boyfriend. The boy who truly loves her, sees himself as her
savior, and wants to save her from a heartbreak by telling
her He’ll only break you, leave you torn apart (Excerpt 4).
In addition, sleeplessness for young adults can sometimes
be caused by life events, such as emotional tension at rst
sight or a desire to see a certain person, as shown in Save You
Tonight, which clearly describes sleepless behaviors, e.g. It’s
quarter to three, can’t sleep at all (Excerpt 4).
Excerpt 3.
It feels like we’ve been livin’ in fast forward
Another moment passing by
(Up up up all night)
The party’s ending but it’s now or never
Nobody’s going home tonight
(Up up up all night)
People going all the way
The Stages of Love, Songs, and a Band: A Corpus Discourse Analysis of One Direction’s Pop Albums 77
Yeah, all the way
I’m still wide awake
I wanna stay up all night
And jump around until we see the sun
I wanna stay up all night
And nd a girl and tell her she’s the one
“Up All Night” from Up All Night (2011)
Excerpt 4.
It’s a quarter to three can’t sleep at all
I, I wanna save you
Wanna save your heart tonight
He’ll only break you
Leave you torn apart, oh
I can’t be no superman,
But for you I’ll be super human
“Save You Tonight” from Up All Night (2011)
The songs mentioned in this section were released in
2011, at a time One Direction was just starting a new jour-
ney together as a boy band (Lipshutz 2013). And akin to the
rst stage in a relationship– Everything is very attractive and
exciting.
The buildup phase: Take Me Home (2012)
Following the previous concept of the debut album, the
lyricism of the second album tells a narrative of falling in love,
unrequited love, insisting that aws are what make a person
special, and a rm commitment. They were evident in their
songs Little Things, Last First Kiss, Back For You, and They
Don’t Know About Us (Petridis 2018). This is the buildup
stage stated by Levinger (1983): when the relationship really
develops. To develop the relationship from the acquaintance
(attraction) stage to the buildup one, it is important to keep (or
become) compatible with each other in terms of tastes, hob-
bies, personal values, and life goals. The buildup stage in a
relationship is usually characterized by two individuals being
close to each other, full of passion and feelings for each other.
For example, in Excerpt 5, But I’ll love them endlessly
tells us that the insecurities we might see make us pretty
and perfect. She/he may not be the most beautiful/handsome
girl/boy in the world, but for him/her, she/he is the great-
est girl/boy in the world. The lyrics of I just wanna tell the
world that you’re mine, girl (Excerpt 6) are about two people
(gender not specied) who want to be together and show the
world that they love each other despite what other people
say. In this narrative, the use of ‘we’ instead of ‘I and you’
sends a different message about the stage in the relationship
they are in. They now present themselves as ‘one’, ‘them
vs the world’, and adamant in believing that others do not
understand what the only two of them know.
Excerpt 5.
I know you’ve never loved the crinkles by your eyes
when you smile
You’ve never loved your stomach or your thighs
The dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine
But I’ll love them endlessly
“Little Things” from Take Me Home (2012)
Excerpt 6.
People say we shouldn’t be together
We’re too young to know about forever
But I say they don’t know what they’re talk-talk-talkin’
about (talk-talk-talkin’ about)
‘Cause this love is only getting stronger
So I don’t wanna wait any longer
I just wanna tell the world that you’re mine, girl
“They Don’t Know About Us” from Take Me
Home (2012)
The distinctive words from the album mentioned ear-
lier Take Me Home are rock (37), summer (16), live (21),
kiss (29), ow (16). Surprisingly, kiss is on the list. As can be
seen from Fig
ure 9, in the ve albums, the frequencies of kiss
are used the most. In modern Western culture, kissing is a
common way of expressing love and the most intimate inter-
action between two individuals. There are some reasons for
this situation due to lack of resistance or defense (Wlodarski
and Dunbar 2013). For instance, when boys are moved by
the cuteness or shy smile of girls, their hearts melt, and they
cannot help but want to kiss them. Explicit hints in the lines,
such as Baby, be mine tonight, mine tonight and And let me
kiss you (Excerpt 7), obviously speaks about the initial stages
of sexual attraction running amok and wanting to get to the
Figure 8. Correlations of Want and Love
Figure 9. Contextual patterns for the token Want
Figure 10. Word Trends pattern for Kiss
78 ALLS 13(1):70-81
next level. Teenagers tend to be easily moved by girls and
the way they look or move; they cannot help but want to give
them a pampering kiss (Hughes et al. 2007). Gonzaga et al.
(2006) posit that sexual desire plays a role in starting contact,
stimulating sexual interest, and seeking intimacy; this is the
state that promotes passion and infatuation. Therefore, sexual
desire is often so strong at the beginning of a relationship, and
this explains why the presence or absence of concupiscence
can reect the intensity of commitment between partners.
Thus, the illocutionary force in Take Me Home and Be mine
tonight alludes to pruriency, which all starts with a kiss.
Excerpt 7.
Oh, I just wanna show you off to all of my friends
Making them drool down their chinny-chin-chins
Baby, be mine tonight, mine tonight
Baby, be mine tonight, yeah
Yeah, so tell me girl if every time we
To-o-uch
You get this kind of ru-u-ush
Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
If you don’t wanna take it slow (c’mon)
And you just wanna take me home
Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
And let me kiss you
And let me kiss you
And let me kiss you
And let me kiss you
And let me kiss you
“Kiss You” from Take Me Home (2012)
Similarly, Take Me Home suggests moving up to the next
level in a relationship. It is no longer just kissing; it is now
about intimacy and sharing something personal. As shown in
Excerpt 8, the title of the song Let me be your last rst kiss
(from the same album) compressed a lifelong romance into a
seven-word line. The illocutionary message it sends to a girl
is that he is open to the idea of having a long-term relation-
ship. This song is full of promises being made to a girl just to
have her love and affection. For example, Oh, I just wanna
take you anywhere that you’d like and You can get, get any-
thing that you want (Excerpt 10) these lines imply hope and
willingness to give everything for love.
Excerpt 8.
I wanna be last, yeah
Baby let me be your
Let me be your last rst kiss
I wanna be rst, yeah
Wanna be the rst to take it all the way like this
And if you
Only knew
I wanna be last, yeah
Baby let me be your last
Your last rst kiss
“Last First Kiss” from Take Me Home (2012)
Excerpt 9.
Oh, I just wanna take you anywhere that you’d like
We could go out any day, any night
Baby I’ll take you there, take you there
Baby I’ll take you there, yeah
Oh, tell me, tell me, tell me, how to turn your love on
You can get, get anything that you want
Baby just shout it out, shout it out
Baby just shout it out, yeah
“Kiss You” from Take Me Home (2012)
Other tracks, such as “Heart Attack,” “Rock Me,” “I
Would,” and “Over Again,” have a more nostalgic tone,
expressing pain and yearning for signicant others in the
past (Ryan 2012). Nonetheless, the overarching message is
building up a relationship. Very similar to what was happen-
ing in their journey as a band around the time these songs
were created- the boys were very much committed to stick-
ing together and making it big in the music industry.
The continuation phase: Midnight Memories (2013)
The songs in Midnight Memories (2013) album express a
turbulent relationship that leads to sadness and heartbreak.
With the themes of Live While We’re Young and Story of
My Life, the songs explore the rapid passing of time, cap-
turing moments in life, and gaining love in the process. The
continuation phase described in Levinger’s (1983) model is
characterized when a relationship develops into long-term
commitments; hence, love relationships are strengthened. At
this stage people would be in a stable partnership or contem-
plating marriage if they are still not married. Thus, mutual
trust is essential to the success of the continuation stage of a
relationship (Fraley & Davis 1997). One of the songs in the
album, “You and I”, is a lyrical declaration:
“ You and I, we don’t want to be like them. We can make
it to the end. Nothing can come between you and I. Not
even the gods above can separate the two of us”.
The discourse in these lines suggest a discussion is being
made about the future of this relationship. The line, we don’t
want to be like them indicates a comparison with others. And
we can make it to the end further insinuates that other rela-
tionships have ended, while theirs is still going and if they’re
willing, they could go a long way. However, when one tells
someone, I love you and I need you because you make me
strong, it may scare someone off. This adds pressure to
escape a relationship (Horan & Booth-Buttereld 2013).
Although this line shows determination to pursue the rela-
tionship, the degree of expression, particularly overlaying
vulnerability, could be seen as signs of emotional toxicity,
i.e., neediness and codependency.
The total number of the token know is 241 (the second
highest), while the highest relative frequency of occurrence
appeared in the Midnight Memories album. The excerpt below
expresses direct perception and cognition between one who is
speaking and the one to whom the message is addressed to:
You know, I know, you know I’ll remember you
And I know, you know, I know you’ll remember me,
The phrases I know, you know, suggest that both com-
prehend that what they have/had is something unforgettable.
However, these lines also suggest an imminent separation, a
sense of nostalgia, remembering something that happened in
the past. This is more evident in Excerpt 11, where people
feel lonely and miss someone in their life that left wonderful
memories. This feeling of longing for someone who used to
be there is very relatable for many.
The Stages of Love, Songs, and a Band: A Corpus Discourse Analysis of One Direction’s Pop Albums 79
Excerpt 10.
You know, I know, you know I’ll remember you
And I know, you know, I know you’ll remember me
You know, I know, you know I’ll remember you
And I know, you know, I hope you remember how we danced
How we danced
“Best Song Ever” from Midnight Memories (2013)
Excerpt 11.
Been a lot of places
I’ve been all around the world
Seen a lot of faces
Never knowing where I was
I’ve been away for ages
But I’ve got everything I need
I’m icking through the pages
I’ve written in my memory
Don’t Forget Where You Belong” from Midnight
Memories (2013)
The albums Midnight Memories, Up All Night and Take
Me Home, all have intertextual reference to the word ‘night’.
Although the rhythm of the songs in this album is also very
brisk, the content of the lyrics is quite sad and dark. This sug-
gests that feeling melancholic happens at night when things
get dark. The chorus of Strong takes a different turn in the
narrative. In these lines, one is apologizing for being weak and
needy (Excerpt 12). These are difcult emotions that young
adults go through. As Amanstein (2021) states, “the awkward-
ness, confusion and sometimes desperation of trying to forge
romantic relationships is even more stressful” (para. 4).
Excerpt 12.
I’m sorry if I say, “I need you”
But I don’t care
I’m not scared of love
‘Cause when I’m not with you I’m weaker
Is that so wrong?
Is it so wrong
That you make me strong?
“Strong” from Midnight Memories (2013)
As mentioned in the introduction, by 2013 One Direction
had been on world tours, producing and doing concerts at the
same time. Akin to the theme of this album, One Direction
was already feeling the pinch of success.
The deterioration phase: Four (2014)
Not all relationships go through the deterioration phase.
However, for some it is difcult to adapt to a new level of
relationship and decide to terminate it. Since compromise is
an indispensable part of every relationship, so are the issues
of lack of compatibility, trust, love, and care which often
lead to misunderstandings and serious relationship troubles.
The song, Night Changes elaborates the idea that everything
can change. The song “18” describes how a relationship has
ended and hopes to rekindle it with a more mature perspec-
tive. 18 is the age regarded by many as a transition age from
boys to men, interpreting that these boys are not kids any-
more but adults (Centre for Mental Health 2016). However,
like what was mentioned earlier, maintaining a long-lasting
relationship for teenagers is challenging.
The song Spaces from the album Four, the word Who has
been repeated in every single line. This brings attention to the
person committing the act. Who’s is a contraction of the phrase
Who is. Who is a pronoun, and the way it is used in the song
makes it a part of an interrogative phrase (question word) ask-
ing about a person’s character, position, importance, etc.
Who’s gonna be the rst one to start the ght?
Who’s gonna be the rst one to fall asleep at night?
Who’s gonna be the last one to drive away?
Who’s gonna be the last one to forget this place?
Who’s gonna be the rst to say goodbye?
Who’s gonna be the rst one to compromise?
Who’s gonna be the rst one to set it all on re
The songs on this album take a big switch from the sweet
narrative of early teens having a crush to reaching that stage
of complexity in relationships. Four focuses on deteriorating
partnerships where couples constantly argue and their love
for each other starts to wane. Complicated emotional matters
can lead people to breakdowns. Many nd themselves at a
crossroad. The constant repetition of Who in Spaces suggests
that the perennial scenes of ghting only cause the space
between them to grow further apart. These spaces turn into
crevices of secrets that slowly turn deep until both become
unable to reconcile.
We keep taking turns
Will we ever learn?
Oh spaces between us
Keep getting deeper
It’s harder to reach you
Even though I try
Spaces between us
Hold all our secrets
Leaving us speechless
And I don’t know why
Deterioration phase is a stage where everything seems
to shatter (Levinger, 1983). As stated previously, by 2014,
One Direction was going through some turbulent times. The
band was experiencing some internal problems. The cracks
within can no longer be ignored. And as their song goes, the
spaces and secrets make it harder to reconcile. And it did not
take long, Zayn Malik left the group. Perhaps leaving others
speechless.
The termination phase: Made in the A.M. (2015)
Made in the A.M. (2015) has overtones of endings that ts
Levinger’s (1983) nal stage of a relationship. This is not nec-
essarily related to a break-up, divorce, or separation; it may
also be due to the death of one of the partners in the relation-
ship or other factors. An ideal relationship can bring lasting
commitment and marriage; however, some relationships do
start on a positive note but end suddenly. Sometimes, the ter-
mination stage is due to the disappearance of love and/or inti-
macy. Boredom is usually regarded as a sign of deterioration
of the relationship. The stagnation phase is a highly predict-
able situation that occurs before the avoidance and termina-
tion phases (Knapp & Vangelisti 2005). In Levinger’s model,
termination is the culmination of the impact of change. Made
in the A.M. (2015) is the album released by One Direction
80 ALLS 13(1):70-81
after Zayn left the group. The leitmotif of the album is about
endings and losing people in one’s life.
Looking at the Word Links results (Fig
ure 11) using the
token ‘love’ (in blue), it is highly linked to baby, followed
by oh, let and goodbye (in orange). One can easily surmise
based on the frequency of usage; One Direction shows pref-
erence on using baby as a term of endearment addressed to
the person who is the subject of attention. However, the rel-
evance of correlation with the lexical term ‘goodbye’, i.e.,
goodbye, love also suggests parting of ways despite still feel-
ing the love for that person.
There is never such a simple way to say goodbye. How-
ever, the ending is also the start of something new for each
of them. It validates what Levinger (1983) propounds that
the termination stage can allow the individuals to grow and
mature in the relationship, even though this may be a painful
and difcult process.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study revealed the semantic references in
the lyrics of One Direction’s love songs. Applying Levinger’s
5-stage relationships model and corpus-assisted discourse
analysis, word choices mainly focus on the theme of love
and relationships. The genre of One Direction’s songs in all
their ve albums has not changed much; many of the songs
have fast beats and rhythm. One of the characteristics of their
lyrics is the conveyance of optimism, which makes people
feel better. Most songs contain lyrics about love between
young teenagers as shown and described in this study. It
seems expected that this kind of music attracts youngsters the
most as they can easily relate to the social situations and the
feelings being evoked. Listening to pop music is a kind of
leisure for them, thus the songs are mostly related to love,
sex, and young pleasures. Another interesting nding is that
the songs One Direction released correspond to the stages of
love and relationships. There are songs that represent young
men to speak out their feelings, describing love at rst sight,
expressing the situation of spending the day yearning for an
unrequited love, etc.– all these make their fans feel elated
and melancholic at the same time. In short, their songs speak
of the ironic truth about the convoluting phases of love and
what it means to love and lose the people whom they thought
will be there with them forever. The break-ups and endings
are also a painful reminder that nothing lasts in this world, a
stark similarity with One Direction’s fate– not even money
and fame could save the group. The small corpus based on the
ve albums is a limitation of this paper. For further research
in this eld, larger corpus data and multiple methods could
help improve the robustness of the study. Nonetheless, this
research provided an invaluable contribution to the eld of
corpus discourse analysis of pop songs and young love. Per-
haps it is indeed true that love is like a song; it has stages, and
quite similarly, so does the life of a boy band: it has a begin-
ning and an end, and it beats in its own rhythm.
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