Photo // Alishia Abodunde, Getty Images
By: Sam Simons
Media Writer
“Does it ever drive you crazy, just how fast the night changes?” These lyrics now especially hit home as former One Direction band member Liam Payne tragically passed away on Oct. 16 at age 31. For longtime Directioners, his death came as a major shock and left fans devastated.
The media was very quick to report Payne’s death, but some of the coverage caused major backlash. Specifically, many tabloids crossed the line, as some went as far to post photos of his body hours after the news broke. Paparazzi also surrounded his family in their time of grief. Reflecting on Payne’s passing sheds light on how inappropriately the media handles celebrity deaths.
Many current twenty-somethings were once tween girls for whom One Direction was a formative part of adolescence, and now that Payne has passed, it can feel like part of their youth died with him.
Some sources, like “Celebrity Tributes,” make it seem like they relate to these feelings of grief. However, when titles start with “painful to watch…” but are followed by footage of Payne’s father visiting the site of his son’s death, it feels more exploitative than empathetic.
Not only has the media reacted poorly, but some fans have also been insensitive. For example, some flocked to the social media of Payne’s ex-fiancée, Maya Henry, leaving comments insinuating that she is to blame for his death because of a cease and desist order she filed against him. Additionally, some have gone as far to say that Payne’s actions toward Henry made his death deserved.
Payne’s death isn’t normal because of the heavy publicity surrounding it, which naturally means people will be more vocal about their reactions. Still, responses like these are out of line and unproductive.
The sad truth is that when a celebrity passes away, they are still not left alone. Stars like Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson and Matthew Perry still don’t have peace, as people try to come up with conspiracy theories about their deaths, and it just feels like an invasion of privacy. Yet, this is excused as if since their lives have always been in the spotlight, it’s okay for their deaths to be in the spotlight too.
As a whole, we don’t know how to handle celebrity deaths because in our world they aren’t considered “normal people”, but we still form parasocial relationships with them. Though we might know of celebrities and everything about them, they don’t know about us. It means something to us when a celebrity dies, even though the feeling wouldn’t be the same if the roles were reversed.
At this point, it all feels overwhelming, but the simplest way to pay respects to Liam Payne is to leave him alone. Don’t feed into the content that features the newest details about his death. Instead of being the generation that continues to invade celebrities’ privacy even after they pass away, we can break that cycle and finally let celebrities have their peace.
One beautiful thing that fans have done is coming together to hold vigils and recognize their memories of Payne as part of their childhood media landscape. Whether you liked or disliked Liam Payne, he was still someone’s son, bandmate, friend and even a father to a seven-year-old little boy. Even if you aren’t grieving, someone else might be.
