1D has hit 1B — again. More than a decade after its release, the music video for One Direction‘s “Night Changes” has surpassed a billion views on YouTube, marking the band’s fourth visual to reach the milestone.
Directed by Ben Winston and posted in November 2014, the “Night Changes” music video gave fans the chance to experience what it would be like to do something many of them had long dreamed of: go on a date with one (or all) of the members of the band. Shot in a first-person POV, viewers were made to feel like they were sitting down at a fancy restaurant with Zayn Malik, ice skating with Harry Styles, riding shotgun next to Louis Tomlinson, sitting by a cozy fire with Niall Horan and walking around a carnival with Liam Payne.
As the guys sing the mellow lyrics to the hit song in the video, things hilariously start to go wrong on each of their “dates.” A disgruntled ex dumps spaghetti on Malik’s head, Styles injures himself and his love interest in a misguided move on the ice, Tomlinson is pulled over and arrested by a road cop, Horan accidentally sets his sweater sleeve on fire and Payne vomits in his date’s hat after getting too dizzy on a spinning fair ride.
“We’re only gettin’ older, baby/ And I’ve been thinking about it lately/ Does it ever drive you crazy/ Just how fast the night changes?” the quintet sings in unison as the video’s vibes quickly turn from romantic to catastrophic.
Released as a single from 1D’s fourth studio album, Four, “Night Changes” is considered a staple in the boy band’s catalog. The track reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, one of numerous top 40 hits One Direction achieved between the group’s debut in 2010 and dissolution in 2016.
Following Payne’s death last October, many of the guys’ songs experienced a streaming boost as grieving Directioners revisited their discography while processing the news — but “Night Changes” was the song fans flocked to the most. The track’s playback saw a 416% increase in the days that followed the “Strip That Down” singer’s fatal fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, re-entering both the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart at No. 95 and the Billboard Global 200 at No. 117.
Add your view to more than a billion others by watching the “Night Changes” music video above.
