Music's 3 Biggest Breakthrough Artists of 2014

By
ETONLINE

This year saw a lot of fresh faces at the top of the music charts. From Meghan Trainor to Ariana Grande to 5 Seconds of Summer, ET breaks down the artists who exploded onto the scene in 2014.

Meghan Trainor: ET was with the "All About That Bass" singer when she got the news that her smash single had reached No. 2. "That's crazy," Meghan told ET. "And I didn't want to do any of it, because I thought I couldn't and now I did." Trainor faced hurdles along the way, including a bully who told her that he would "rip out his car radio" if her songs were ever played. Today, Meghan feels particularly touched by the young girls with eating disorders that have reached out to her because of her body-image anthem. "I'm glad a lot of the comments I've gotten are about [girls'] eating disorders and how my song saved them -- which is crazy, but amazing."

NEWS: The Year in Music

Ariana Grande: The former Nickelodeon star's My Everything produced four hits, including "Problem," which, for Ariana, turned out to be anything but. The single earned a GRAMMY nomination and has gone platinum, selling more than 1 million copies. "I like to pay attention to what's real, and I like to appreciate the good, and I like to focus on the beautiful things in my life," Ariana told ET.

5 Seconds of Summer: The Australian boy band has been causing teen hysteria since One Direction's Louis Tomlinson tweeted his support of the band. Louis' message sparked 83 million Twitter mentions. Thanks to the word of mouth, their self-titled album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Singer Lance Bass was on our ET stage today, and he had some words of wisdom for the young stars.

"Learn to say no," Lance said. "Management and labels are going to make you do so much work, but you don't want to burn out too early."

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