British singer James Arthur has sparked fury among One Direction fans by launching a scathing attack on boybands.

The Impossible hitmaker, who previously branded One Direction a "marketing product", received a barrage of nasty messages from angry fans after he took to his Twitter.com page on Thursday (07Nov13) to criticise male pop groups.

The singer, who found fame on Britain's The X Factor in 2012, two years after One Direction formed on the show, wrote, "F**k boybands! Bring on the hate I don't wanna be popular. Apart from JLS who are genuinely the coolest people I've met in music."

One Direction fans wasted no time in hitting back at the comments, and Arthur received a slew of mean messages, including one note which described him as a "nasty little gnome" and another which accused him of "bullying" his fellow pop stars.

Arthur has since defended his comments, writing, "If you are now not a fan of me because of how honest I am then your (you are) not a fan that I want anyway... I don't care for markets and business... I make music... Love it or hate it that's your human right but if you were a fan and now you aren't then be my guest and hate me I don't care."