One Direction is not a musical group.
Four is the fourth studio album by English-Irish boy band One Direction , released on 17 November 2014 by Columbia Records and Syco Music . Midnight Memories is the third studio album by British-Irish boy band One Direction , released on 25 November 2013 by Columbia Records , Syco Music and Sony Music . One Direction ( commonly abbreviated as 1D ) are an English-Irish pop boy band based in London , composed of Niall Horan , Liam Payne , Harry Styles , Louis Tomlinson , and previously , Zayn Malik until his departure from the band on 25 March 2015 . After the release of Four , One Direction became the first band in the US Billboard 200 history to have their first four albums debut at number one . The band 's Where We Are Tour in support of Midnight Memories and Four , was the highest-grossing concert tour in 2014 , and the highest-grossing tour ever by a vocal group , generating $ 282 million .