GARTH BROOKS
G'day folks,
I'm pleased to present a great country singer from the USA. Troyal Garth Brooks, is an American country pop singer and
songwriter. His integration of pop and rock and roll elements into the
country genre through multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live shows.
Garth Brooks
is as responsible as any one musician for the sound known as modern country.
Never a favorite among discerning music snobs (and particularly not during the
phase of his career when he inexplicably assumed the identity of glam rocker
Chris Gaines), Brooks nonetheless achieved a level of mainstream commercial
success theretofore unseen in his genre—or any other, for that matter. Taking
country music from the pickup trucks and dirt roads south of the Mason-Dixon
Line into the suburban living rooms of Yankees everywhere, his accessible
themes, lovelorn honk, and lite-FM rock riffs nationalized country music.
The Tulsa-born
Brooks excelled as an athlete in high school and earned a track scholarship to
Oklahoma State University. He competed in javelin and graduated with a degree
in advertising in 1984. Though Brooks enjoyed country music, his first love was
sensitive singer-songwriter soft rock like James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg. This
influence would serve him well when he moved to Nashville in search of fame.
He would find
it quickly with his self-titled debut in 1989. The album reached #2 on the
country charts and 13th on Billboard,
launching the most successful country album career in history. The following
year’s No Fences
spent 23 consecutive weeks at #1 on the country charts and peaked at #3 on the
pop charts. The next year, Ropin’
in the Wind became the first country album to debut at #1 on the
country charts.
In three short
years, Brooks was a household name. His trademark headset microphone and
slickly produced stage show outfitted country music’s blue collar anthems and
patriotism with arena rock panache and ambition. Brooks joined the storied
Grand Ole Opry in 1990 and carried country music into a new stratosphere of
sales, in the process driving the Nashville sound to something more closely
resembling arena rock acts like Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel than Hank
Williams.
Brooks is a
Country Music Hall of Famer, winner of two Grammys, and recipient of 17
American Music Awards, including recognition as “Artist of the ‘90s.” This
title is well-deserved, as nobody has sold more than Brooks’s 70 million
records since 1989. He is only surpassed on the all-time list by the Beatles
and Elvis Presley.
Clancy's comment: I'm not a fan of all country music, but I do like this guy.
I'm ...
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