AFP and AP
The boy band One Direction took home the top prizes at the American Music Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles, while chart-topper Taylor Swift used her appearance to deliver a staunch defence of traditional album buying.
The AMAs focus on commercial success, with fans voting for their favourites, in contrast to the Grammy Awards in which music-industry professionals select what they consider the year’s top work.
The Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, 24, won Favourite Rap/Hip-Hop Album for her debut, The New Classic, seeing off tough competition from rap heavyweights Eminem and Drake.
“This award is the first award I’ve ever won in my entire life, and it means so much to me,” she said. She soon doubled her haul, also lifting the Favourite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist award.
The New Artist of the Year award went to rising stars 5 Seconds of Summer, while Katy Perry won Single of the Year for Dark Horse, featuring Juicy J.
Perry also won the Favourite Pop/Rock Female Artist award, while Sam Smith was the Male winner.
One Direction, who have released albums every year since 2011 – their latest, Four, is reviewed above – won the biggest prizes: Artist of the Year, Favourite Pop/Rock Album, for Midnight Memories, and Favourite Pop/Rock Band, Duo or Group
Swift received a new award for excellence named in honour of the American Music Awards' late founder, Dick Clark, a pioneer of music television with his American Bandstand show.
Accepting the award from Motown legend Diana Ross, Swift appeared to dish out a fresh round of criticism against the streaming site Spotify from which she removed her songs.
Thanking her fans, Swift said: “What you did by going out and investing in music and albums is you’re saying that you believe in the same thing that I believe in – that music is valuable and that music should be consumed in albums, and albums should be consumed as art and appreciated.”
Her latest album, 1989, enjoyed the highest first-week sales of any United States album in 12 years. It outpaced industry expectations by selling two million copies in the US in its first three weeks.
Swift opened the evening by performing her latest single Blank Space, in which the 24-year-old singer – playing with her reputation for short-lived relationships – held a burning rose as she pushed back suitors who pranced around her holding empty picture frames.
