

With the world’s eyes on London for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the time is right to celebrate the artists that have made their home countries most proud by winning gold (records) and making a lasting, global impact on the music world.

As legendary hard-rock survivors and a boundary-pushing pop maven, AC/DC and Kylie Minogue represent their native Australia on an impressively global level. And both artists from Down Under are still going strong: AC/DC’s last album, 2008’s “Black Ice,” has sold 2.2 million copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, while “The Best of Kylie Minogue,” a new greatest-hits package, was released last month.