One Direction

One Direction are a British-Irish boy band consisting of members Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. They were signed to Simon Cowell's record label Syco Music after being formed and placing third in the seventh series of The X Factor. They were later signed in North America to Columbia Records.

One Direction's debut single, "What Makes You Beautiful", was released in September 2011 and peaked at number one in the UK and charted in the top ten in several international markets. Their debut album, Up All Night, followed in November 2011, and debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, selling 138,631 copies, and was the fastest-selling debut album on the UK Albums Chart of 2011. On 21 March 2012, Up All Night debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 176,000 copies in its first week, making One Direction the first UK group in history to debut at number one with their first album.

"What Makes You Beautiful" won the Best British Single award at the 2012 Brit Awards, which was held on 21 February 2012.

One Direction

Music carrier

2000–05: Musical beginnings

At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town,^[30] but was rejected.^[31] After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received much attention.^[32]
When Swift was 15, she rejected RCA Records because the company wanted to keep her on an artist development deal.^[33] After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta,^[34] who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. At age 14, she became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.^[35]