GARTH BROOKS
Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music singer-songwriter. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Brooks’ integration of rock elements into his recordings and live performances earned him immense popularity. Brooks broke records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990’s. As of 2013, his recordings continue to sell well and, according to Nielsen Soundscan, his albums sales up to May 2013 are 68,630,000, which makes him the best-selling albums artist in the United States in the SoundScan era (since 1991), well over 5 million ahead of his nearest rival, the Beatles. According to RIAA, he is the second best-selling solo albums artist in the United States of all time ahead of Elvis Presley (second to the Beatles) with 135 million units sold. (More from Wikipedia)
As punk rock and new wave rock ran its course, alternative rock started up in the 1980’s; and that also kept the popular music world rocking on into the 1990’s, even as other forms of music began intruding into rock’s hegemony, such as hip hop and country. MTV had long since come to terms with rap music and hip hop, but their VJ’s were always chagrined when they kept having to report that the Number One album in the country was by Garth Brooks, probably the most successful crossover artist in popular music history.
(January 2013)
