One Direction performs music as a group.
A boy band ( or boyband ) is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers , usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation , singing love songs marketed towards young females . 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 .