If you are unfamiliar with the crooners known as One Direction, you probably have no proximity to tween-age girls. This British-Irish boy band has captured the hearts of millions of tweenage females on both sides of the pond. The music is typical pop, harmless enough when heard one or two times, particularly the first single “What Makes You Beautiful.” But when heard hundreds of times with singalong accompaniment, it becomes an aural vector of torture for the trapped listener who does not share the enthusiasm for Harry, Niall, Zayn, Louis and Liam.
The Piano Guys are classically trained musicians who have made a career out of posting their renditions of both classical and pop pieces on YouTube. Now they have taken on the musical juggernaut that is One Direction: a version that uses only the piano to recreate the song.
Suggestions about the worthiness of musicians who can actually play an instrument will probably fall on the deaf ears of an average One Direction fan. So will noting the improvement of beauty and the increased complexity of the Piano Guys version in comparison with the original, since if the moony-eyed listener had any interest in actual beauty/complexity they would not be listening to One Direction to begin with.
Fear not. Insist on this version. The fan club you’re stuck with can sing the lyrics themselves. It will be a momentary distraction to the worry whether or not the girl in that video was cute enough for Harry.
