Fashioning a Post Boy Band Masculinity: On the Seductive Dreamscape of Zayn’sPillowtalk

Abstract

Zayn Malik’s debut solo album, Mind of Mine (2016), topped numerous charts worldwide and made him the only British male solo artist to have debuted at the top of the prestigious Billboard 200 album chart with a first album, thus extending the astounding commercial success he had previously achieved with the boy band One Direction. This article examines the considerable changes to image and style that accompanied Zayn’s transition to a solo career, and argues that a primary motivation for his reconfiguration as an artist lies in opposing the common stereotypes and prejudices associated with the boy band format. My methodological approach is grounded in critical musicology and involves investigating issues of personal narrative, sonic production, and audiovisual aesthetics. By analyzing the music video Pillowtalk (2016), I demonstrate how provocative lyrical themes, shock effects, and surreal aesthetics showcase Zayn’s masculinity as dangerous and seductive. Even though Zayn’s fashioning of masculinity calls attention to how gendered identities are constructed and performed in pop, I conclude that his representation in Pillowtalk conforms to heteronormative gender dynamics as much as it challenges them.

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