If there’s any title I proudly wear, it’s that of a dedicated fangirl. For over a decade, the face of Harry Styles has been present in my life, from old One Direction CDs to posters pinned to my wall. There is something really wholesome about girlhood and our insistent drive to obsess over a single niche celebrity and make it part of our personality. One of the most silly aspects of being part of the Harry Styles fanbase is the way we categorize different stages of Harry’s career, then pick and choose our favorite versions to be fixed on. After deep thought and consideration, here are the multiple “Harry Styles Eras” in my order from most to least favorite.
My personal absolute favorite era has to be “HS1 Harry,” which is based off of Styles around 2017 to 2018, when he released his first album as a solo artist apart from One Direction. This album, self-titled Harry Styles, is one of my favorite albums of all time because of how it stands out in his discography. During this time, Harry Styles’s music was very soft-rock inspired, with songs such as Sign of the Times, Only Angel, and Two Ghosts being examples of the signature style of music he started off with. The rockstar vibes were also present during Harry’s fashion style in 2017, in which he wore beautifully decorative suits inspired by legends such as Elvis or Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones.
Next in line is “Frat Boy Harry,” which took place at what was arguably the peak of One Direction around 2014. Nineteen-year-old Harry Styles completely altered the brains of every pre-teen who laid eyes on his shaggy hair, tattooed arms, and ripped black skinny jeans. He was the epitome of every edgy, hot, party boy that you see in the movies and made us all naively fantasize that this is what college boys were going to look like.
In third place, “Fine Line Harry” makes it into my top 3 because of the nostalgic memories I associate with this era. Fine Line was an album that was released in December of 2019 during my freshman year of high school. This was also around the time COVID-19 spread and the world went on lockdown. Listening to upbeat songs like Canyon Moon and Golden was what kept me going during quarantine. Around this time, the fanbase was also obsessed with recreating Harry Style’s outfits and making crochet replicas of his vibrant patchwork cardigans.
On to the next. “LOT Harry” defines the period between 2021 and 2023 during which Harry Styles ran his “Love on Tour” shows. Although I do appreciate the music that came out during this time, such as his third album, Harry’s House, it is my least favorite in his collection, so it ranks below the past three albums. Not to mention the fact that I am definitely still extremely salty that I never got tickets to go see Love on Tour because the tickets sold out so quickly. However, a really cool perk that the fanbase got during this time was to see Harry transition into the acting field with movie projects such as Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman, which were no Oscar-worthy nominees but still enjoyable to watch nonetheless.
Finally, my last and most controversial ranking of the eras would be placing “Long Haired Harry” as the worst era in all of Harry’s career. This era consists of the time between 2015 and 2016, when One Direction was nearing the end of their time together as a band. For most people, it is their favorite Harry Styles era because they claim it was his most attractive era; however, I believe this was the style that suited him the least. One notable aspect that did occur during this stage was that One Direction released their final album before going on a hiatus called Made in the AM.