CNF Writing Exercise: Exercise on Rhetorical Techniques

The most influential band of my pre-adolescence has to be One Direction. In the saturated market of teen heartthrobs and boybands, One Direction was nothing special. They were five conventionally attractive British (and one Irish) guys who sang cloyingly sweet pop songs about you. About what made you beautiful. About how it’s gotta be you and only you. About how you’ve got that one thing. I admit it’s very manipulative of them to play with their young, emotionally vulnerable fans’ emotions like that, but the takeaway was that they sold us a fantasy of being with them. A fantasy of being cared for. A fantasy of being needed.

Which was exactly the kind of thing 12-year-old me was ravenously craving.