Duo TVXQ has clinched the spot as the best album sellers for the first half of 2011.
According to a list of the best selling albums compiled by some of the major music charts -- Melon, Mnet, and Dosirak -- on July 7th, TVXQ's 5th album "Keep Your Head Down" sold 230,922 copies from January 1st to June 30th. This makes them the highest selling act in k-pop for the earlier half of 2011.
The title track off of the album, "Why", was the first song released by the group in two years. So imagine the high expectation and anticipation for this album. In fact, the follow-up repackage album featuring the songs "Before You Leave" and "Why (repackage)" sold another 55,234 copies putting it in 9th place on the list of best sellers. Tallying up the two, TVXQ sold just shy of 300,000 copies.
Big Bang also had a great year selling 133,951 copies of their highly anticipated fourth mini-album, putting them at 2nd place on the overall list. Their follow-up special edition album featuring "Love Song" and "Stupid Liar" was at 6th place having sold 83,726 copies.
Another popular group that's been establishing their place among the greats of idol groups -- such as TVXQ and Big Bang -- sold 111,201 copies of their first full-length album released last May, "Fiction And Fact", putting them at third place.
Following behind, there was the ever-so-popular Kim Hyun-joong with his first solo album, which saw 100,433 copies be sold at fourth place. CNBLUE was at fifth place with 93,059 copies of their first full-length album "First Step". Another male group, 2PM was at seventh place having sold 67,819 copies of "Hands Up". Finally having some estrogen in the mix, popular girl group f(x) sold 58,419 copies of their first full-length album, placing them at 8th place. Rounding out the top ten, the OST special album for the drama "Secret Garden" was at 10th, having sold 47,373 copies.
source: KBS Global
