2010s in music

For music in 2010, see 2010 in music. For music in 2011, see 2011 in music. For music in 2012, see 2012 in music.

This article describes trends in popular music in the 2010s.

In North America, Europe and Oceania the second wave synthpop, dance-pop, and electropop genres, which were popular in the late 2000s, have remained popular. Pop music, such as teen pop, still remains popular; though the staying power of these artists has become hard to achieve with the general public increasingly moving on to the next big star. Dance music, which was not that popular since 2000, such as Disco music, or Nu-disco in its more recent form, has seen a revival in the early 2010s so far. Dance and electronica music was popular in other location besides the United States, such as in Europe and Asia throughout the 2000s but the United States finally "caught on". Europop and Eurodance music have also seen commercial success at the beginning of the decade, due the mixing of the music with hip hop as well as the success of DJs such as David Guetta and Calvin Harris. American-styled music such as hip-hop and country is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and Asia, while decreasing in popularity throughout the U.S. Europop and Eurodance music have also seen commercial success early in the decade. Dubstep has becoming a popular genre on both sides of the Atlantic, especially in its native United Kingdom; in the UK, other electronic genres such as grime have also been growing in popularity.

In Asia, popular music continues to be influenced by Western pop music. As with the past decade, J-Pop and K-Pop continue to be successful in the; in J-Pop, image songs and the influence of anime on popular music have grown since the end of the last decade. K-pop's popularity continues to increase around the world, with acts such as Wonder Girls and Girls' Generation being the most successful artists of the genre. In India, Indian pop, rock and filmi music continues to be popular.

In Latin America, Latin pop still remains the main genre. Tropical music and reggaeton are also popular genres, whilst pop rock is still successful.

Musical trends in mainstream pop

Lady Gaga, an American singer and songwriter is one of the most popular recording artists of the early 2010s.

The saxophone has been used in multiple top 40 songs early in the decade. Saxophone solos were common, almost cliche, in pop from the 1950s to the early 1990s, but declined later in the 1990s. Songs include "The Edge of Glory" by Lady Gaga, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" by Katy Perry, "Mr. Saxobeat" by Alexandra Stan, "In the Dark" by Dev, and "Midnight City" by M83. Another trend is the use of whistling in songs, which was common during the big band era of the 1940s. Examples of this include "Good Life" by OneRepublic, "I Wanna Go" by Britney Spears, "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5, "It Girl" by Jason Derulo", "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People, "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars, "Whistle" by Flo Rida and "I Like How It Feels" by Enrique Iglesias.

Electronic music artists are becoming increasing popular, with artists like Skrillex, David Guetta and Deadmau5 leading the way.

The U.S. and North America

Pop

Katy Perry is considered one of the most successful American female Pop artists of the early 2010s

Electropop, dance pop, synthpop and electrohop, along with other forms of dance/electronica/pop music that started in the 1980s, have become the dominant form of music in the US in the early 2010s, due to such acts as David Guetta, LMFAO, Kesha, Carly Rae Jepsen, Pitbull, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Adam Lambert, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, The Black Eyed Peas, and Usher. Dubstep is becoming very popular with pop artists such as Britney Spears and Rihanna and slightly in the underground, the massively popular Deadmau5, Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia. Many pop songs in 2011 and 2012 incorporate a dubstep-influenced breakdown.

Pure pop music comes back after about a ten-year hiatus in late 2009, especially after the death of Michael Jackson, and this trend continues well into 2012. In 2010 MJJ Inc (the record company of Michael Jackson) signed the largest contract in the history of the recording industry worth between $ 250 million to $ 300 million in advances, with expectations of billions of dollars. Throughout the decade of the 2010s MJJ Inc and Sony Music will release new albums by Michael Jackson with new songs, remixes, etc, besides video games and movies. The first release of Michael Jackson under this contract was the Michael album which debuted at number one in 17 countries and was certified platinum in over 20 countries and has sold between 6 to 10 million copies.

While most of the 2000s decade was dominated by hip-hop and rock music, pop music sales rose 5% in 2009, which did not happen since 2004 and was not prominent since 2000; This includes artists such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Katy Perry. Katy Perry became the second artist and first woman in history to have an album that produced five number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first artist in history to spend 69 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Other than these, Katy Perry also achieved other awards, acknowledgments and recognitions which made her one of the most influential and popular acts in this decade's music. Kelly Clarkson releases her fifth studio album Stronger which is met with positive reviews from critics. By late 2010 and continuing into today, the re-emergence of ballads into the mainstream became a trend, starting with country music and then emerging into other genres. Overall, dance pop, electrohop, and auto tune are currently the most popular mainstream trend.

Electropop

Kesha is considered one of the most successful American female Electropop artists of the early 2010s

Since approximately 2006 popular music has been dominated by the use of synthesizers and Auto-Tune which was popularized by artists such as Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kesha and T-Pain. A similar trend in music took place in 2000, before the domination of R&B and hip-hop on the charts for most of the early and middle part of the 2000s decade. Almost all popular music through the first two years of the decade have been dominated by this genre of music which consists of electro-pop, synthpop, house, techno, and 1980s inspired New Wave music. The most successful songs of this genre have been Britney Spears's "Till The World Ends", Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance", "Born This Way", and "The Edge of Glory", Rihanna's "We Found Love", "Only Girl (In The World)", and "S&M", Katy Perry's "California Gurls" featuring Snoop Dogg, "Firework", and "E.T." featuring Kanye West, and Kesha's "Tik Tok", "Blah Blah Blah", "Your Love Is My Drug", "Take It Off", "We R Who We R", and "Blow". Male artists such as Pitbull, Ne-Yo,Chris Brown and Usher follow these trends as well. The 2010s have also been dominated by Electropop music, alongside the resurgent European style club music. The genre first gained prominence in the mainstream in the late 2000s when artists such as Rihanna, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga making their extremely successful songs "Don't Stop the Music", Gimme More and "Just Dance". The genre experiments with many different types of synthesizers and auto-tuning devices.

Rock

Rock music has retained quite a large level of popularity, although the genre is not as prominent as it has been in previous decades.

Alternative rock and Indie rock

In the early 2010s, several alternative rock and indie rock bands such as Vampire Weekend, MGMT, and Arcade Fire released albums that topped the Billboard Top 200. Blues-rock band The Black Keys has achieved mainstream success with the release of their seventh album El Camino, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and has been certified gold in the US. Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto debuted at number one, spawning the Top 40 hits "Paradise" and "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall". Other successful indie rock acts include Foster the People, fun., Gotye, Lana Del Rey, Imagine Dragons, Bon Iver, Sleigh Bells, Cage the Elephant, Passion Pit, and Young the Giant.

Hard rock and heavy metal

In the early 2010s, hard rock popular hard rock and heavy metal bands include Linkin Park, Evanescence, Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Trivium, Dream Theater, Van Halen and Stone Sour releasing successful albums. One of the most successful hard rock/heavy metal albums to be released in the 2010s in the US thus far is Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns, which topped the Billboard 200 for one week. Progressive rock and Progressive metal, has seen an upsurge of popularity since the last few years of the 2000s; the most since the early-mid 1970s. Bands such as Dream Theater, Opeth, Steven Wilson and Rush have hit Top 40 positions on album charts in many countries. Dream Theater hit #8 in the U.S. and #1 in many other countries with their 2011 album A Dramatic Turn Of Events. Dream Theater's 2011 single "On the Backs of Angels" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category, the first Dream Theater song ever to do so; and a rarity in the progressive music world.

2011 saw the return of System of a Down, who has been embarking on their first tour since their 4-year hiatus from 2006 to 2010 but they do not have plans to record new material.

Punk rock

Punk rock/pop punk music has decreased in mainstream popularity since the late 2000s, though a number of acts such as Blink-182, The Story So Far, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, NOFX, Paramore, Green Day, The Offspring, Rancid, MxPx, AFI, Rise Against and Pennywise have continued to enjoy some success, while emo, popular between about 2002 and 2008, has declined in popularity and relevance compared to its mid to late 2000s peak.

Many bands that ended around the 1990s or 2000s have been making comebacks in the 2010s, including Refused and At the Drive-In, who both played at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2012. Other bands have continued to put out material such as Bad Religion's The Dissent of Man (2010), Social Distortion's Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes (2011), Rise Against's Endgame (2011), The Misfits' The Devil's Rain (2011), Blink-182's Neighborhoods (2011), Dropkick Murphys' Going Out in Style, (2011), Sum 41's Screaming Bloody Murder (2011), Flogging Molly's Speed of Darkness (2011), The Adolescents' The Fastest Kid Alive (2011), Anti-Flag's The General Strike (2012), MxPx's Plans Within Plans (2012), Pennywise's All or Nothing (2012), The Offspring's Days Go By (2012) and Green Day's ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! (both 2012) and ¡Tré! (2013). NOFX and Rancid are also planning to release new albums in 2012.

Country

Taylor Swift,is an American, Country Music singer-songwriter.

As Country music sales continue to raise, country music has seen a major increase in sales. This has been attributed both to the faithfulness of country fans and to a rise in popularity of the genre, such as the immense popularity of Taylor Swift in 2009-2010 and the popularity of Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band on Top 40 radio. Carrie Underwood remains a big main stay for the genre. Country music also becomes increasingly popular in the later part of 2010, with artists such as Zac Brown Band, Billy Currington,

Jason Aldean, an American singer and songwriter, is one of the most popular Country Music recording artists of the early 2010s.

and many other artists. Miranda Lambert gains major popularity with her third studio album Revolution. She gains even more popularity with her 2011 follow-up Four the Record. The Dixie Chicks music regains popularity at country radio after years of being blacklisted by country radio.

Traditional country returns with the emergence of artists such as Zac Brown Band and Toby Keith as in "Red Solo Cup". Country music still remains to be increasingly popular in the United States, with songs sometimes nearly topping the Billboard Charts. Country music is beginning to spread to other countries in Europe and Latin America. Artists such as Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, The Band Perry, Zac Brown Band, and Lady Antebellum top highly in the pop and country charts. Scott McCreery, the winner of American Idol in 2011, along with runner up Lauren Alaina may help revitalize country music. Country music still remains popular in Australia and New Zealand with artists such as Keith Urban. In 2010, the group Lady Antebellum won five Grammys, including the coveted Song of the Year and Record of the Year for "Need You Now".[75] Also in 2010, Taylor Swift's third multi-platinum album Speak Now sold 1,041,000 copies in its first week.[citation needed]

A large number of duos and vocal groups have begun to emerge on the charts in the 2010s, many of which feature close harmony in the lead vocals. In addition to Lady Antebellum, groups such as The Band Perry, Gloriana, Thompson Square, Eli Young Band and the Zac Brown Band have emerged to occupy a large portion of the new country artists in the popular scene.

Contemporary R&B

Rihanna is considered to be one of the most successful R&B and Pop artists of the early 2010s

R&B is not as important in the early 2010s as it was from the late 1980s to mid 2000s, when New Jack Swing and neo-R&B were fixtures in pop music. Slow jams have largely been replaced by dance numbers and pop ballads performed by artists such as Bruno Mars.

Some of the most successful contemporary R&B artists in the 2000s, such as Usher, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé, continued their success during the early 2010s.

R&B begins to get a more dance and disco influence to it and many artists that were traditionally R&B artists start to change to more of a dance flavour. This is notable in artists such as Ne-Yo, Usher, Chris Brown and Rihanna with songs such as "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" by Usher, Flo Rida/David Guetta's "Club Can't Handle Me", "Only Girl (In the World)" and "S&M" by Rihanna, "Yeah 3x", Beautiful People by Chris Brown, and "Beautiful Monster" by Ne-Yo. R&B started to cross even with country such as Trey Songz "I Need A Girl"

There has also been a slight revival of soul music in the early 2010s with such artists, like Cee Lo Green, Joss Stone and Adele.

New singers Miguel, Frank Ocean who is the first R&B artist to come out and say that he had fell in love with the same sex, Elle Varner,and Future also has hits on the billboard in the early 2010's. Kelly Rowland, former member of the famous girl group Destiny's Child makes #1 on the R&B charts with her hit single "Motivation". It was her best song since her 2002 single "Dilemma" with Nelly. 11 years after her tragic death, the sing Aaliyah comes out with a new song Enough Said. The song made #48 on the US Hot R&B/ Hip Hop Songs. It did pretty well except the controversy was all about Drakes role in the song.

Hip hop

Drake is one of the most successful emerging Canadian male Rap artists in the early 2010s

Electropop, sometimes combined with hip hop, and other forms of dance music see the most mainstream success throughout the early 2010s. Several artists such as Kid Cudi and Drake have managed to attain chart-topping hit songs, "Day 'n' Night" and "Best I Ever Had" respectively, by releasing their music on free online mixtapes without the help of a major record label. New artists such as Wale, J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco, Drake The Cool Kids, Jay Electronica, and B.o.B, openly acknowledge being directly influenced by their nineties alt-rap predecessors in addition to alt-rock groups while their music has been noted by critics as expressing eclectic sounds, life experiences, and emotions rarely seen in mainstream hip hop. Also, music industry experts say that more conservative young people are fed up with the violence, constant references to drug use, sex, and degrading imagery used in the genre. However, hip hop was the only genre to have a sales increase in 2010.

In 2010, Eminem, who was named the best-selling music act of the previous decade by Billboard, set an early record on the U.S. Billboard charts, with two number one singles and the second-fastest selling album of the decade so far, Recovery.

Kanye West and Lil Wayne also released albums in the early 2010s that were successful, with West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy debuting at number one on the Billboard 200.

Alternative hip hop has been the most popular form of hip hop in the mainstream during the early 2010s with acts such as Gorillaz and B.o.B, who managed a number one album and number one single, plus two other top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

Hip Hop artists outside the United States, have also been a popular trend in the early 2010s - the most successful being Canadian rapper, Drake, whose debut album Thank Me Later, debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 447,000 copies. It attained the third-highest first-week sales of 2010 in the United States. British rapper Tinie Tempah released his debut album Disc-Overy, which has sold over 600,000 copies in the UK alone since its release. It spent forty-two consecutive weeks in the UK Top 40 Albums Chart to date. In the US, the album debuted at number twenty-one on the Billboard 200 with 16,400 copies sold in the first week due to his hit singles "Pass Out" and "Frisky", but most notably "Written in the Stars" featuring American singer-songwriter Eric Turner, which sold over 115,000 copies in its first week alone, which at the first quarter of 2010 was a first week figure surpassed only by "California Gurls" by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg (124,000) and the charity single "Everybody Hurts" by Helping Haiti (over 450,000). In the second week 6,300 copies were sold, selling a total of 22,700 domestic units in two weeks. Also fellow British rapper, Tinchy Stryder, who has worked with and released the song "Game Over" featuring Tinie Tempah, has seen moderate commercial success, in the UK and internationally, due to his third studio album, Third Strike, released in November 2010.

Electronic music

Adam Young, the sole member of Owl City, one of the most successful emerging American Synthpop artists in the early 2010s

Billboard has mentioned: "While dance music has periodically conquered the American pop charts, its current incursion may be its deepest since the disco heyday of the '70s." The start of the 2010s has many musical influences from the 1970s Disco, and the 1980s Hi-NRG, Spacesynth, Italo disco and New Wave music, and influences from the 1990s and 2000s Eurodance, Techno, House, Trip Hop, Europop, Garage and Trance music (this last breaking into mainstream in late 2010 in the USA). Trance can be incorporated into electropop songs, which it is called the new Electrance music genre. Examples of trance melodies are Rihanna's song "Only Girl", Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull new single "On the Floor", Pitbull's "Give Me Everything" and LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem". House music can be incorporated with electro songs (Electro House) which started to prominence by late 2000s. In 2010, through immense prominence of electro house movement, some Hi-NRG compositions knew a considerable revival, and many of their electronic elements were incorporated into the modern dance sound. A notable example is Britney Spears new single "I Wanna Go", and Lady Gaga's "Bad Kids" with similar beats to that of New Order's big hit "Blue Monday" and "Fashion Of His Love", and Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera song "Moves Like Jagger", these two last with complements of disco.

Industrial or formally Electro-Industrial music is starting to break-out into mainstream, more notable is in the convergence of Dance and Electropop music on early 2011. It came out because of the reflex that has with the early 2010 popularity of Dubstep. Some examples are the new songs from Britney Spears "Hold It Against Me", which debuted on #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., and "Till The World Ends", and Ke$ha's song "Blow". Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way has Electro-Industrial beats on tracks and particular songs, such as "Judas", "Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)", "Heavy Metal Lover", and "Government Hooker". Katy Perry's single, "E.T." has a beat similar to Dubstep.

Dubstep started to break into the mainstream in 2010. The most popular Dubstep producers are Skrillex and Knife Party. Skrillex's second EP, named "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites won him three Grammy Awards in 2012 including Best Dance Recording, and Best Dance/Electronica album.

The U.K. and Europe

Soul

Adele is considered one of the most successful British female artists of the early 2010s.

Pop

R&B as well as traditional soul music rule the UK pop music scene in the early 2010s. Popular artists who encompass this sound include Jessie J, and Adele. Pure pop music and Pop-rock have substantial popularity in pop music throughout the early 2010s. Popular artists of these genres include One Direction, The Wanted, The Saturdays, Ellie Goulding, Marina and the Diamonds, and Katy B.

Rock

Rock music has been present so far in the 2010s by singles being in the UK charts with acts such as Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Beady Eye, The Wombats, Mumford & Sons and Snow Patrol. Also acts such as Florence and the Machine, Tribes, Feeder, White Lies, Band of Skulls, Miles Kane, Hard-Fi and The Vaccines have had recent popularity by selling many albums over the UK and the rest of Europe.

Heavy metal is not so popular in the UK singles charts as Rock music, but acts such as Bullet For My Valentine keep heavy metal present in the UK and Europe by selling many albums.

In the Northern Europe, especially in Sweden, 1980s Glam Metal and Sleaze Rock got revived with such acts like Hardcore Superstar, Crazy Lixx, Crashdiet, H.E.A.T and Reckless Love.

Contemporary R&B

Traditional soul music makes a considerable comeback in the 2010s with artists such as Adele (although this is widely disputed and some feel that they are a further evolution of pop).

Electronic music

Dubstep started to break into the mainstream by 2010. Especially in Britain, where it has combined with Grime, a genre that moved into the mainstream in 2009. Eurodance music, which has been consistently popular in Europe for 20 years (since the early 1990s), has broken into the mainstream outside of Europe, in a more modern style than the first wave into North America in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Folk

The UK has seen a large growth in the 2010s with folk music. The most successful and well known across the UK and recent winners of the 2011 BRIT award for best album is Mumford & Sons. Another artist who was the 2011 BRIT Awards winner for best British female is Laura Marling. Other artists include Johnny Flynn, Noah and the Whale, Bon Iver and Alessi's Ark. Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran released his first album, +, in 2011.

Australia and New Zealand

Pop

Gotye is considered one of the most successful Australian artists of the early 2010s.

Popular music by Australian artists tends to be influenced by radio broadcasting more than any other country. Australian radio station Triple J plays a large role in promoting new Australian music, especially through the Triple J Hottest 100, a worldwide public poll on each individual's favourite music from each given year. In 2010, Australian pop artists to feature substantially in the countdown included Birds of Tokyo, Pendulum, Washington and Triple J Unearthed group Gypsy & The Cat. Australian acts that were placed high on the countdown included Angus & Julia Stone, Little Red (Unearthed), Art vs. Science (Unearthed), Sia and The Jezabels (Unearthed). The correlation between the Triple J Hottest 100 and the ARIA and iTunes singles charts is distinctly evident. The number-one song in 2010, "Big Jet Plane", reached number six on the iTunes singles chart and number 32 on the ARIA singles chart, the week following the announcement of the Hottest 100 on 26 January.

In 2011, Australian artists to feature substantially in the Hottest 100 countdown included Boy & Bear (Unearthed), Gotye, 360, Architecture in Helsinki and Ball Park Music (Unearthed). Again, the correlation between the Hottest 100 and the growth of singles on iTunes and the ARIA charts in the week following was strong. Rapper 360 and his song, "Boys Like You", entered the Hottest 100 at number eight, and the following week it rose to number two on the iTunes singles charts and number three on the ARIA singles chart. Similar movements included Matt Corby's "Brother" (number three in the 2011 Hottest 100 countdown), also rising to number three on the ARIA charts. The most prominent Australian song during 2011 and early 2012 was Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know", which reached number one in eleven countries including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Belgium and the United Kingdom. The song also reached number one in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2011 countdown and features New Zealand pop singer Kimbra, who also placed three times on the Triple J Hottest 100 as a solo artist.

Electropop

Electropop in Australia has been dominated by the use of synthesizers and Auto-Tune which was popularized by newcomers such as Havana Brown, Elen Levon, Timomatic and Justice Crew, as well as artists from the 2000s including Brian McFadden, Zoe Badwi, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Sneaky Sound System and The Potbelleez. The most successful songs of this genre include Brown's "We Run the Night", Timomatic's "Set It Off", Justice Crew's "Friday to Sunday", McFadden's "Just Say So", and Badwi's "Freefallin'".

R&B

R&B in Australia is not as popular in the early 2010s as it was in the 2000s, however, artists including Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy and Stan Walker still continue to produce music that is commercially successful. In 2010, Sebastian's single, "Who's That Girl" featuring American rapper Eve, topped the ARIA Singles Chart and became his fifth number-one single in Australia. This made him the only Australian male artist in Australian music history to achieve five number one singles. Mauboy has released many commercially successful top-twenty singles, including "Saturday Night" featuring American rapper Ludacris, "What Happened to Us" featuring English recording artist Jay Sean, and "Galaxy" with Walker, all of which have been certified platinum. In August 2010, Stan Walker's second album entitled From the Inside Out was released, it debuted at number two on the ARIA Albums Chart.

Latin America and Caribbean

Nicki Minaj is one of the most successful female Hip hop artists of the early 2010s.

The Trinidadian hip hop and R&B artist Nicki Minaj became extremely popular during 2010. Minaj's debut album Pink Friday peaked at number one on the Billboard 200. This marked the second-highest sales week for a female hip hop recording artist, behind Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1998.

In Latin America, pop music, pop rock, El Pasito Duranguense, and tropical music are still popular through the early part of the decade. A new type of music emerged from the reggaeton, the new electro music, and it is breaking mainstream in late 2010 in Latin America, a new dance from reggaeton hooks with electronic sounds, because of the popularity of electronic/dance music in the prominent markets of the world. Pitbull is the principal representative of this genre.

Asia

Japan

See also: J-Pop

In 2010, the prominent Japanese female idol group AKB48 got a Guinness record for being the world's "largest pop group".

In 2010 the Japanese boy band Arashi released their million-selling studio album "Boku no Miteiru Fūkei" which was named the best-selling album of the year in Japan.

South Korea

Main article: Korean wave

A resident of a shelter for disabled persons doing the Gangnam Style dance.

K-pop is a music genre that is becoming increasingly popular in the West at an exponential rate, the Internet serving a dominant role in K-pop's rise in popularity. Websites such a YouTube and Twitter are significant in the rise of K-pop, as big-budget music videos with eclectic fashion styles, attractive idols and colourful sets, catchy tunes and hooking choreographies attract a mainly youth demographic despite the language barrier. Leading K-pop acts include Girls' Generation, SHINee, 2NE1, Big Bang, Super Junior, PSY, Kara and 2PM amongst others. Korean pop acts are submitted to significant levels of training in a variation of apprenticeship to become polished "idols." PSY's song "Gangnam Style" in 2012 broke the record for the most number of YouTube views.

See also

• 2000s in music
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of the 2010s (U.S.)
• List of 2010s UK Singles Chart number ones