Harry Styles and Eight Boy Band Stars Who Went Solo

On Friday, Harry Styles released his latest album, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.” The LP is pleasantly breezy, mildly rakish pop — a collection of electro-pop songs that consider sensuous entanglements and doomed relationships, often with beats and bass lines that beckon the listener to the dance floor.

It’s the fourth album Styles has released as a solo artist, and its lived-in maturity suggests how far he has come since his days in the exuberantly youthful boy band One Direction. In honor of Styles’s new album, a playlist gathers tunes by former boy band members who found success on their own.

Leaving a beloved group to fly solo can be risky: artists must assert their maturity without alienating a core audience or resorting to inauthentic shock. Styles has handled the transition well, and the selection places him in a lineage that runs from Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake to a slightly edgier English rogue, Robbie Williams.

harry styles, disco occasionally, electro-pop, one direction, solo career, boy band, michael jackson, justin timberlake, robbie williams, playlist