TRANSCRIPT
Fans around the world are grieving after the death of One Direction star Liam Payne.
It's a huge moment for many young people ... in particular, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012, known as Generation Z.
Formed in 2010, One Direction is one of the biggest boy bands of all time.
FAN 1: “This is a grief and the one thing that (One) Directioners know how to do is come together as a family and I think that’s evident today, and a lot of people wouldn’t understand this loss but we understand each other."
FAN 2: "He saved my life but I'm sorry that I couldn't save him"
FAN 3: "I've been following One Direction since I was an eight year old boy. I think a lot of people feel like that's a part of their childhood."
FAN 4: "Closure of the relationship we had with him. Even though as fans, he was very important in our lives."
For many young people, this may be the first celebrity death heartbreak they've faced.
Dr Georgia Carroll is a sociologist and researcher who completed her PhD in fandom communities at the University of Sydney.
She says for Generation Z, it's a significant loss.
"Obviously there have been big celebrity deaths in recent years, but this is the first one on this global scale. From their very earliest days, fans have felt especially connected to them and kind of like they have grown and evolved with them over the past 14 years, and so to kind of lose someone where so many people felt so attached to him. If you were a young girl, there was a chance you were a One Direction fan and that it was a big part of your personality."
One Direction rose to fame at the same time social media took off, which allowed fans to be able to connect with the band on a deeper, personal level for the first time, watching their every move as they updated their millions of followers.
Associate Professor in Public Policy at the University of Melbourne Lauren Rosewarne says the devastation fans feel can be linked back to the intimacy social media provided.
"One Direction is intimately twined with social media. Their rise coincided with the rise of social media use. So absolutely that idea of parasocial relationships, the idea of fans feeling like the band is communicating directly with them, et cetera, absolutely. That is stronger than any other band fan experience throughout history. And I suppose that fan community more broadly is also how the grieving is taking place as well, where the same community that celebrated this band and saw their rise is also the band that the community that's providing fans consolation in the aftermath."
Fans around the world have been comparing the loss of Liam Payne to how their parents must have felt when they experienced the loss of a major celebrity.
But with the added layer of closeness social media brought, is there a difference in the grief being experienced by Generation Z?
Professor Rosewarne says she doesn't believe the grief is any different, everything is simply more public.
"The difference is the internet makes it visible, right? So fans, when Michael Jackson, Prince, John Lennon, when these people died, fans mourned of course. But the difference is now everyone is carrying a phone, a camera, a video, and it's being documented and it's also being chronicled on social media where people are sharing their thoughts and feelings in a way that we don't have a record of pre-social media celebrity mourning."]
In Australia, data shows young people are increasingly struggling with their mental health.
Research by the National Youth Mental Health Foundation Headspace suggests eight out of ten people in Australia are concerned about the mental health of young people in their lives.
So how can this generation defining death be managed by Australia's young people?
Dr Carroll says recognising it's okay to grieve is essential.
"It's just really important to recognise that it's okay to grieve, even though we didn't know Liam as a real person. Fans still have these memories that are tied up in their fandom in seeing the band, in listening to their music, in engaging with the friendships they've built around being a One Direction fan. And of course, that is going to mean you feel real grief and real sadness. And there's been some discourse because obviously One Direction fans - it's just girls being emotional. It is a real and valid sense of grief because we did have a relationship with him."
