How Did One Direction Become Superstars in Less Than a Year’s Time Upon Their 2012 U.S. Invasion? Greatest Pop Stars Podcast Discussion

In 2012, boy bands hadn’t been a major part of the American pop marketplace in a decade — since the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC and their progeny ruled the world during the peak of the TRL era at the turn of the century — and hadn’t had a British vocal group take over top 40 in far longer.

But by the