ONE DIRECTION Named Top Global Recording Artist of 2013 by IFPI

Although it may seem that the increasingly popular British-Irish boyband One Direction may only be popular amongst young teen girls, the group was just recently named "Top Global Recording Artist" by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), according to Billboard.

This award was created by the IFPI to honor the most popular recording artist of the year based on CD sales, music downloads, and streaming. The group is the first ever artist from the UK to achieve this honor.

"Many congratulations to One Direction who topped a talented field to become the IFPI Global Recording Artists of 2013," comments Frances Moore, chief executive of IFPI. "This is a global IFPI award for a new era of music consumption, based on a new metric of global success. Our chart for the first time measures the popularity of artists across the many different ways in which fans choose their music."

Each coming from humble beginnings, in their roughly 3 years as a band, One Direction (Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, and Niall Horan) have gained worldwide success. Their most recent album "Midnight Memories" reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this past December, making them the first-ever group in history to have their first three albums debut at the top of the chart. Their music videos for "Best Song Ever" and "Story of My Life" (both tracks off of "Midnight Memories") gained 200 million and 100 million views on YouTube respectively; the band is expected to drop the music video for the title track "Midnight Memories" today.

Below are IFPI's Top Global Recording Artists Of 2013:

1. One Direction

2. Eminem

3. Justin Timberlake

4. Bruno Mars

5. Katy Perry

6. P!nk

7. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

8. Rihanna

9. Michael Bublé

10. Daft Punk

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