Beating out the cream of the crop in pop music such as Pharrell Williams and newcomer Sam Smith, the K-pop idols of 2NE1 have made their mark this year with the album “Crush” named in Rolling Stone’s “20 Best Pop Albums of 2014.”

Taking the No. 6 spot on the magazine’s list of the year’s 20 best albums, “Crush” is only the K-pop group’s second full-length album. After its release on Feb. 27, the album went on to shatter a number of records, including becoming K-pop’s biggest selling album in the U.S. and opening at No. 61 on the Billboard 200 chart, the highest debut spot for a K-pop album. 

“Almost two years after K-pop first giddily barged into America’s imagination, the genre hasn’t sustained a post-‘Gangnam Style’ wave, but the Seoul machine keeps humming,” Rolling Stone wrote. “Female foursome 2NE1, buoyed by a cameo on ‘The Bachelor,’ moved more units of their album in its first week of release than any previous Korean act.”

At the beginning of the year, the foursome made a special guest appearance on the popular U.S. dating reality show “The Bachelor,” schooling the reality stars on how to bust out some K-pop moves.

Not only was 2NE1 the only K-pop act to penetrate Rolling Stone’s best album’s ranking, the Korean quintet was the only Asian act on the list.

English singer-songwriter Charli XCX took the year’s top spot, followed by young U.S. pop sensation Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Maroon 5 and Ariana Grande with her second studio album, “My Everything.”

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)