One Direction: Crooning Ballads and Perpetuating Rape Culture

One Direction is the name of a boyband formed on the 2010 season of the British show X-Factor. Referred to as the 'biggest boyband ever' by countless sources, this band is currently on their second world tour. Playing stadiums filled with tens of thousands of fans several days a week, their actions and words have an enormous amount of influence, mainly on young girls. So you might sympathize with my concern that some of their lyrics smack of sexual assault.
There are several songs in particular that unnerve me, but the one I'll be discussing is entitled "Little White Lies." In the first part of the song, the lyrics address the audience as the boybanders sing about creating boundaries or "rules." This is followed up with the line "Then we'll watch them break tonight." This is rather worrisome for several reasons, the main one being that the lyrics aren't respecting the choices of its subject, but rather disregarding them without much thought.
Later, a lyric reminiscent of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" is sung, the line "I know you want it." This is a recurrent theme in many places, the idea that no matter how many times a woman says she does not want to engage in sexual activity with someone, she's obviously just 'playing hard to get,' and really does desire everything she's refusing. This is an insulting and disrespectful belief, which inspires people to listen to media and rape culture rather than an actual human being, and to disregard the choices a woman makes. This is just one of the countless beliefs that rape culture perpetuates, and it is harmful no matter the source. Overall I think that One Direction's work has several positive messages, and they continue to be a huge inspiration to many people, but some of their songs can be quite harmful if listened to without a critical ear.