Simon Cowell pulled One Direction together in 2010 after Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne had each auditioned as solo artists on The X Factor UK. Better together, at least at the time, the five-piece came in third place in the singing competition. But at this point, mentioning their stint on the show feels as necessary as tracing Justin Bieber’s success back to his time on YouTube or Ariana Grande’s on Nickelodeon. While important stepping stones and key parts of their stories, the feats pale in comparison to literally everything that came after.