{One Direction}

One Direction (commonly abbreviated as 1D) are a British pop boy band based in London, comprised of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. They signed with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records after forming and finishing third in the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor in 2010. Propelled to international success by social media, One Direction's four albums, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014) broke records, topped charts in most major markets, and generated hit singles including "What Makes You Beautiful", "Live While We're Young", "Story of My Life" and "Steal My Girl".

Their achievements include four Brit Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards and eleven MTV Europe Music Awards among many others. According to Nick Gatfield, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment UK, One Direction represented a $50 million business empire by June 2012.