Ed Sheeran and One Direction continue the British invasion of US pop charts

You've listened to Florence and the Machine and Jessie J, perhaps are familiar with The Kooks or Arctic Monkeys, and you'd have to live in a world without radios to have never heard of Adele. But what about the British artists currently topping the U.K. charts that aren'tso well known in the States? Two such acts are coming to America.

The first artist's biography on the music website Pandora proclaims him to be a "flame-haired singer/songwriter, beatboxer and guitarist." This seemingly random combination of nouns could only describe Ed Sheeran, a 20-year-old whose hard work and undeniable talent have earned him a triple-platinum album and the highest-selling debut single of any artist in the U.K. in 2011.

Sheeran began recording in 2005 when he was only 15 and independently released a total of six EPs and two albums. On each album, he manages to create a coherent fusion of soft, singer-songwriter rock, beatboxing and raps replete with word plays. Among these records is his No. 5 Collaborations Project, an eight-track record on which Sheeran worked with some of his favorite English rappers, including Devlin, P Money, Mikill Pane and more. Perhaps the most important of his independent releases was 2010's Loose Change, which featured the song "The A Team," a pretty song telling a traumatic tale, which would eventually become his record-breaking debut single.

In 2011, Sheeran signed with Asylum/Atlantic Records and released his debut studio album, +, in September. The album debuted at number one on the charts and was the ninth highest selling album in the U.K. last year. At press time, +had once again reached the number one spot of the charts, 15 weeks after its previous stint at the top. Furthering his acclaim, Sheeran swept the nominations for this year's esteemed Brit Awards, obtaining nominations for Best Male Artist, Best Breakthrough Act, Best Single and Best Album.

However, America has yet to truly hear of Ed Sheeran; the U.S. iTunes store only offers his The A Team EP and iTunes Live Festival: London 2011 EP, a mere 10 songs out of many. His full-length album, +, will be released stateside this year, although the exact date is still to be determined. Sheeran has just wrapped up recording on a new EP, The Slumdon Bridge, on which he collaborated with American rappers, including Yelawolf and others whose names have not yet been released; the EP will be available later this month.

American fans eager to see Sheeran in concert don't have to wait much longer; he has signed on to join Irish band, Snow Patrol, on their North American tour, which kicks off on March 29 in Orlando, Fla.

Although it may not seem so upon first inspection, Sheeran has a lot in common with the second act, a five-member boy band sure to make it big in the states this year: both hail from the U.K., have natural vocal talent and the two have even worked together.

This decade's revival of the boy band can be credited in part to Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, who together form the group known as One Direction. These boys' rise to fame was arguably a lot quicker than Sheeran's. Each individually auditioned in 2010 for the seventh season of the hit show The X-Factor, and although they all made it to Bootcamp (American Idol fans, think Hollywood Week), they failed to qualify as solo artists on the show. However, the judges—including Simon Cowell, their mentor on the showódecided that they were too talented to let go and formed them into a band to perform on the show under the "Groups" category. Viewers and the judges alike immediately saw how well the boys worked together. The show's live performances proved that they all had true vocal ability (a trait not always present in boy bands), and the group made it to the show's finale. However of the final three acts in the finale, One Direction placed last. Reflecting on that night, Styles has said, "For me, it was as straight as we needed to win. I really wanted to win, [but] I thought that we needed to win."

This conjecture, however, proved to be false. After their elimination, the group signed a $2 million deal with Syco Music, a label headed by Cowell and Sony. One Direction then began work on their debut album,Up All Night, the writing and production of which the boys were closely involved with. The tracks range from the fun, beat-driven "Up All Night," which name-drops Katy Perry, to the heartfelt "Moments," penned by their pal Sheeran, which deals with teen suicide.

The album was released in the U.K. on Nov. 18, 2011. In its first week of release, it landed on the top 10 charts in the U.K., Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia, and went on to become the fastest-selling debut album in the U.K. in 2011. The first single off the album, "What Makes You Beautiful," is nominated for a Brit award in the category of Best Single opposite Sheeran's "The A Team."