Was 2013 Real?

I've been noticing time passing lately - being struck with sudden realisations that things happened a long time ago. It keeps happening, and I don't know how to feel about it. Wasn't it only just 2016? Has it really been almost a decade since I joined Tumblr? Is it okay for me to feel incredibly nostalgic for 2012/2013 One Direction?

My reaction when I realise 2013 was five years ago, and also when I gaze upon the fluffy hair of still-existing One Direction during this time (1 like equals 1 respect) /// Screenshot from One Direction's "Kiss You" video, which is so playful and somehow exemplifies an era we have utterly left in the dust.

That's how this happened in the first place. I was innocently watching some YouTube video or other, when I noticed that one of my suggested videos was One Direction's "Best Song Ever" - a song I was somewhat alarmed to realise had come out in 2013. Five years ago. Five entire years. It sort of feels like a lifetime since then, but also maybe about a year or two. Not five. Please, tell me it's not been five.

It all feels too uncanny for me. For one thing, the pop landscape is not something that allows for the kind of dorkiness that propelled One Direction into the spotlight any more. No fluffy, stripy, silly boybands. No no, only very cool, biker jacket wearing pop stars who make videos full of coloured gel lighting and stern looks. Only bitter, yet incredibly funky songs about ignoring men, are allowed in the 2018 landscape. That and Ed Sheeran and his particular brand of fiery brooding. We do not have time for fluffy laddish boybands riding double decker buses and faffing about with some knowingly cheesy green screen. It's not 2013, and it feels now as if perhaps it never was.

In 2018 we are BANNED from seeing anything that might be expected to appear in Smash Hits, such as this gloriously goofy sailor suit look, also from the "Kiss You" video. Although to be honest, I'm expecting to see a kpop group try this concept any day now.

Yep, pretty sure 2013 was a lie and I'm trapped in the matrix with Zara Larsson. Someone please bring us some sailor suits and break us out. Thanks.