Big Bang and Super Junior triumph over Britney Spears in 2011

Boy groups Big Bang and Super Junior garnered a lot of international interest in 2011, having beat out international pop icon Britney Spears to achieve their titles as world stars.

First, Big Bang attended the 2011 MTV EMA‘s which were held in Belfast, Northern Ireland back in November.

The boys were nominated under the “World Wide Act Asia Pacific Nominees” category for the EMAs and won, advancing to the “Worldwide Act Nominees” category alongside famous international artists such as Abdelfattah Grini(Africa/India/Middle East), Lena (Europe), Restart (Latin America), and Britney Spears (North America).

Who were the top digital sellers in K-POP for 2011?

With 2011 counting down to a close, the industry is slowing down to look back at its achievements over the past year. Following a list of the most successful producers, Star News has followed up with a ranking of the most popular digital tracks over the past months. 

The list was compiled by Olleh Music and ranks the top 50 songs this year which performed the best in the digital form. The number was determined by combining the number of downloads + the number of streams the song received on its website. 

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2.4 Million Netizens Worldwide Vote for "2011 SBS MTV Best of the Best"

Fans all over the world are busily casting their votes for the "2011 SBS MTV Best of Best" poll, which will determine the most-loved artists of the year. As of December 7, 2.4 million netizens are reported to have participated in the various categories the polls offer. 

Voting began on November 28 and the competition still remains fierce amongst fans. In the "Artist of the Year" category, SM Entertainment labelmates DBSK and Super Junior are going head to head, while in the "Best Female" category, SNSD and 2NE1 are neck to neck. In the "Best Male" category are U-Kiss and GD&TOP. 

MTV Iggy: The 10 Most Significant K-Pop Idols of the 2000s

 GET TO KNOW THE GROUNDBREAKING ACTS OF THE KOREAN WAVE

Koreans used to joke about being the "shrimp among whales" -- stuck between the cultural behemoths of China and Japan. 

Over the past decade, however, a massive Korean (Hallyu) wave of pop music exports appears to have subsumed the whales.

Newly crowned MTV Iggy 2011 Best New Band 2NE1 represent this global music phenomenon, despite the fact that it's still relatively unknown in the West. An umbrella term for just about any musical style, hallmarks of K-pop include precision dancing, high production values, a motley array of acronyms for group names, and squeaky-clean all-boy/all-girl groups that feel like throwbacks to the late-'90s Disney NSync/Backstreet Boy factory. Only, somehow...better. 

The K-pop wave is about to become a global tsunami, so let's take a quick chronological look back at the decade that brought us to this point. Specifically through the acts that charted the course. The acts that didn't just sell millions of records, they set milestones, paving the way every year for a bigger wave the next.

PLEASE NOTE: Bands are ordered chronologically from the oldest to the newest. Not ranked from least to most significant.