After taking on British GQ last month, the loyal fans of One Direction have found their next target: the veteran rockers of The Who.
The beef began this week, when a music blogger compared One Direction’s latest hit, “Best Song Ever,” to an earlier track from The Who, 1971’s “Baba O’Riley.” The blogger wrote, “Someone should call Trading Standards over the song title, as 1D sterilize The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley.'”
This sparked a firestorm from Directioners, who interpreted the words as a threat to “Best Song Ever” being “taken down.” The fans took to Twitter, making the hashtag #DontTouchBestSongEver trending in the U.S.
Most of the fans’ grievances were focused on a Vevo record that was broken with the track (the music video to “Best Song Ever” wracked up to 10.9 million views within 24 hours of its release). The Directioners also took a chance to remind competitors not to “mess with their fandom,” make jokes about The Who’s irrelevance, and, in a rare move, align themselves with Justin Bieber’s Beliebers to work together for their cause.
Take a look at a sampling of tweets on the matter below. (Warning: Some language is NSFW.)
