Really. Why? Why is this guy one the best selling artists of all time???

I know that country is a successful genre in the USA, but I've recently heard the Greatest Hits of this guy, and beyond Ain't Goin' Down and Thunder Rolls, the rest of the songs are very generic, uninspired or just BLAND. I was looking for real, timeless country-rock hits but I only found CRAP

why was this guy so popular back in the day (89-94)?????

jezz, I really need to listen to some Johnny Cash now, or I'll die...

Timmy84 said:

really? was Walmart that popular during the 88-94 era????

JoeTyler said:

Timmy84 said:

really? was Walmart that popular during the 88-94 era????

IDK about the 88-94 period but I know it had a LOT to do with why he suddenly was in the middle of The Beatles and Elvis on the best-selling artists list.

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

really? was Walmart that popular during the 88-94 era????

IDK about the 88-94 period but I know it had a LOT to do with why he suddenly was in the middle of The Beatles and Elvis on the best-selling artists list.

but why did the country embrace him anyway?? I mean, it's not like he has real hits like Can't Buy Me Love or Heartbreak Hotel...

It's his tight ass

JoeTyler said:

Timmy84 said:

IDK about the 88-94 period but I know it had a LOT to do with why he suddenly was in the middle of The Beatles and Elvis on the best-selling artists list.

but why did the country embrace him anyway?? I mean, it's not like he has real hits like Can't Buy Me Love or Heartbreak Hotel...

Might have to do with the record label making this mundane country singer a pop artist and trying to make him appealing. I admit I don't get why he got popular either.

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

but why did the country embrace him anyway?? I mean, it's not like he has real hits like Can't Buy Me Love or Heartbreak Hotel...

Might have to do with the record label making this mundane country singer a pop artist and trying to make him appealing. I admit I don't get why he got popular either.

yeah

JoeTyler said:

Timmy84 said:

Might have to do with the record label making this mundane country singer a pop artist and trying to make him appealing. I admit I don't get why he got popular either.

yeah

Yeah that's the only thing I could think as to why he suddenly became popular. I don't remember nothing he put out except "Thunder Road" and that got popular when he shot that video where he was soaking wet. Maybe that's why he got popular. A pretty boy country singer with a bald spot.

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

yeah

Yeah that's the only thing I could think as to why he suddenly became popular. I don't remember nothing he put out except "Thunder Road" and that got popular when he shot that video where he was soaking wet. Maybe that's why he got popular. A pretty boy country singer with a bald spot.

There's also the "organic factor", I mean, this country suddenly went crazy for organic, basic pop/rock music during the eraly 90's (grunge being the clearest example) so that's why suddenly there was (perhaps) this country "revival"...Garth being the "godfather" of the movement lol

Personally, I still prefer Dwight Yoakam...vastly underrated, but with BETTER singles, ironically, lol

JoeTyler said:

Timmy84 said:

Yeah that's the only thing I could think as to why he suddenly became popular. I don't remember nothing he put out except "Thunder Road" and that got popular when he shot that video where he was soaking wet. Maybe that's why he got popular. A pretty boy country singer with a bald spot.

There's also the "organic factor", I mean, this country suddenly went crazy for organic, basic pop/rock music during the eraly 90's (grunge being the clearest example) so that's why suddenly there was (perhaps) this country "revival"...Garth being the "godfather" of the movement lol

Personally, I still prefer Dwight Yoakam...vastly underrated, but with BETTER singles, ironically, lol

Country was the response to grunge with hip-hop in the middle of it, I preferred the latter two.

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

There's also the "organic factor", I mean, this country suddenly went crazy for organic, basic pop/rock music during the eraly 90's (grunge being the clearest example) so that's why suddenly there was (perhaps) this country "revival"...Garth being the "godfather" of the movement lol

Personally, I still prefer Dwight Yoakam...vastly underrated, but with BETTER singles, ironically, lol

Country was the response to grunge with hip-hop in the middle of it, I preferred the latter two.

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

but why did the country embrace him anyway?? I mean, it's not like he has real hits like Can't Buy Me Love or Heartbreak Hotel...

Might have to do with the record label making this mundane country singer a pop artist and trying to make him appealing. I admit I don't get why he got popular either.

I spent some time doing some recording in Nashville in the mid-90's and the general talk was that Garth Brooks was relatively unknown until the record company purchased a warehouse full of Garth's own records. The overnight record sales generated a buzz to the point where people started buying his records to see what the fuss was about. They were saying the same tactic was used for Hootie And The Blowfish's "Cracked Rear View"....

It's supposed to be one of Nashville's best kept secrets.

I couldn't really tell if it was true or just disgruntled musicians making up stories. Guess we'll never know.

gemari77 said:

Timmy84 said:

Might have to do with the record label making this mundane country singer a pop artist and trying to make him appealing. I admit I don't get why he got popular either.

I spent some time doing some recording in Nashville in the mid-90's and the general talk was that Garth Brooks was relatively unknown until the record company purchased a warehouse full of Garth's own records. The overnight record sales generated a buzz to the point where people started buying his records to see what the fuss was about. They were saying the same tactic was used for Hootie And The Blowfish's "Cracked Rear View"....

It's supposed to be one of Nashville's best kept secrets.

I couldn't really tell if it was true or just disgruntled musicians making up stories. Guess we'll never know.

I think it was the latter.

gemari77 said:

Timmy84 said:

Might have to do with the record label making this mundane country singer a pop artist and trying to make him appealing. I admit I don't get why he got popular either.

I spent some time doing some recording in Nashville in the mid-90's and the general talk was that Garth Brooks was relatively unknown until the record company purchased a warehouse full of Garth's own records. The overnight record sales generated a buzz to the point where people started buying his records to see what the fuss was about. They were saying the same tactic was used for Hootie And The Blowfish's "Cracked Rear View"....

It's supposed to be one of Nashville's best kept secrets.

I couldn't really tell if it was true or just disgruntled musicians making up stories. Guess we'll never know.

well, it that's true, that could only happen back when the industry was still strong and the album sales high; Garth's sales would have been average (or low) if he had been a 00's artist: today, if people wanna see what the fuss is about, they use Youtube/Spotify/iTunes first, lol

JoeTyler said:

so that's why suddenly there was (perhaps) this country "revival"...Garth being the "godfather" of the movement lol

Country never went out of style, so there wasn't any revival. For the most part, the main audience for country has always been separate from the mainstream pop audience. In the 1980's acts like Alabama, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Judds, Randy Travis, George Strait, Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, etc. were all popular before Garth, Shania Twain, or Brooks & Dunn.

Garth had been struggling to get popular as far back as 1984 so he's lucky the industry still had enough clout to push that kind of story.

MickyDolenz said:

JoeTyler said:

so that's why suddenly there was (perhaps) this country "revival"...Garth being the "godfather" of the movement lol

Country never went out of style, so there wasn't any revival. For the most part, the main audience for country has always been separate from the mainstream pop audience. In the 1980's acts like Alabama, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Judds, Randy Travis, George Strait, Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, etc. were all popular before Garth, Shania Twain, or Brooks & Dunn.

Garth Brooks was the first country superstar. He sold 35.000.000 records outside the US in less than 2 years...

and I still don't know why

Dude is a fan of Kiss. He can't be all bad.

Plus he did that awesome cover of Aerosmith's "Fever."

Um, yeah, I never understood why he was so popular either. But that Chris Gaines album was fantastic.

JoeTyler said:

MickyDolenz said:

Country never went out of style, so there wasn't any revival. For the most part, the main audience for country has always been separate from the mainstream pop audience. In the 1980's acts like Alabama, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Judds, Randy Travis, George Strait, Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, etc. were all popular before Garth, Shania Twain, or Brooks & Dunn.

Garth Brooks was the first country superstar. He sold 35.000.000 records outside the US in less than 2 years...

and I still don't know why

YEAH THAT WAS THE BIG WTF!

But I bet no one outside the country know who he is anymore.

rialb said:

But that Chris Gaines album was fantastic.

hmmm, that crazy ass alter-ego album that killed his career for good???

is it good? how does it sound like?

The Chris Gaines album is awesome. Try listening to Lost In You, Snow in July and Right Now. And those are just some of the good tracks, not all.

JoeTyler said:

rialb said:

But that Chris Gaines album was fantastic.

hmmm, that crazy ass alter-ego album that killed his career for good???

is it good? how does it sound like?

MAN the fallout from that was so hilarious! I'm still mad VH-1 actually did a mockumentary on "Chris Gaines"!

JoeTyler said:

rialb said:

But that Chris Gaines album was fantastic.

hmmm, that crazy ass alter-ego album that killed his career for good???

is it good? how does it sound like?

Well, this one sounds like mediocre Babyface:

Plus he did an awful cover of the Youngbloods' "Get Together."

I don't mind admitting that I bought the cd a few years after it was released (hey, it was only $0.99 which was very cheap for a cd at the time). I listened to it once and that was it. I'll have to dig it out and give it another listen.

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

hmmm, that crazy ass alter-ego album that killed his career for good???

is it good? how does it sound like?

MAN the fallout from that was so hilarious! I'm still mad VH-1 actually did a mockumentary on "Chris Gaines"!

Really? I honestly thought it was well done and pretty entertaining. Of course at that time I pretty much watched and enjoyed all of the Behind the Music episodes.

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

hmmm, that crazy ass alter-ego album that killed his career for good???

is it good? how does it sound like?

MAN the fallout from that was so hilarious! I'm still mad VH-1 actually did a mockumentary on "Chris Gaines"!

Chris Gaines looks like a mix of Trent Reznor and one of the boys of Take That!

Timmy84 said:

JoeTyler said:

hmmm, that crazy ass alter-ego album that killed his career for good???

is it good? how does it sound like?

MAN the fallout from that was so hilarious! I'm still mad VH-1 actually did a mockumentary on "Chris Gaines"!

I think it was Garth's attempt or maybe the record company's idea for Garth to be Prince like, which failed miserably, not the music per-se, but his hard-core Country fans who were left scratching their heads and saying WTF is this shit ?

JoeTyler said:

Garth Brooks was the first country superstar. He sold 35.000.000 records outside the US in less than 2 years...

and I still don't know why

How is that possible?! The RIAA has him at 128 million in shipments in the US, but his second biggest market outside of the US is Canada and then Ireland, and then other parts of Europe. That number doesn't seem to make sense to me...

Friends In Low Places was the shizznit! I fuckin' love that song!

The RIAA is not a real reliable source and neither is soundscan.