DHAKA: Boy bands bested pop’s leading ladies in the top award categories at the American Music Awards on Sunday, but the women delivered the most high-octane performances including a Crazy Horse-style derriere-flaunting number by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea.

Chart-topper Taylor Swift also used the platform to deliver a staunch defense of traditional album buying, reports The Straits Times.

The American Music Awards 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 to be the year’s top work.

One Direction, the British heartthrobs who have released albums every year since 2011, won the biggest prizes including ‘Artist Of The Year’ and ‘Favorite Album’ with their latest work, Midnight Memories.

The quintet performed their new ballad Night Changes against a night-time forest backdrop.

Taylor Swift received a new award for excellence named in honor of the American Music Awards’ late founder Dick Clark, a pioneer of music television performances with his show American Bandstand.

Accepting the award from Motown legend Diana Ross, Swift appeared to dish out a new round of criticism of the streaming service Spotify.

Swift has pulled her entire catalogue from Spotify, accusing the fast-growing streaming service of devaluing music by not paying enough back to artists.

Thanking her fans, she 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 sales of any American album in its first week in 12 years. It far outpaced industry expectations by selling two million copies in the United States in its first three weeks.

BDST: 1333 HRS, NOV 24, 2014