Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Zayn Malik of One Direction perform during Z100's Jingle Ball 2012 at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 7, 2012 in New York City.
That collective squee you hear is the sound of millions of fan girls cooing over Britain’s telegenic, over-gelled quintet, which in the words of TIME’s Melissa Locker have “ushered in a new era of chart-topping boy bands.” Their first album, 2011’s Up All Night, debuted at No. 1 and spawned a slew of hit singles — as did this year’s followup, Take Me Home. The boys in the band — Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson — got together during the British version of Simon Cowell’s reality show The X Factor, and have studiously cultivated a ‘nice guy’ image that appeals to zealous young “directioners” (And, in Styles’ case, to recent girlfriend Taylor Swift). Earlier this year the group caused traffic jams in midtown Manhattan as hundreds of fans swarmed the area around Rockefeller Center to catch a glimpse of their idols at a Today Show taping. As one mom waiting on line told TIME, “Instead of drinking or smoking pot, they’re following the boys on Twitter and Facebook. So what?”