Deus Ex Machiato
Leading Participant
Well this explains a lot. Garth Brooks only sold a paltry 30-40 million at best. What an abject failure.
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Mountain Makes It 3 In A Row!
- Thread starter DrAkbar
- Start date
Well this explains a lot. Garth Brooks only sold a paltry 30-40 million at best. What an abject failure.
If you have 10 million fans that buy every album, you sell 100 million. The math works in a lot of ways.
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
Don't forget that when Garth's biggest albums came out, many people were still driving older cars with only AM/FM/cassette installed, even if they did have a CD player at home, and bought those albums in both formats -- or, as I did, bought the first two ("Garth Brooks" and "No Fences") on cassette when they came out and on CD some years later when the used car I bought next came with AM/FM/CD. And it wasn't just Garth I and others were doing this for. The country boom Garth triggered began during the first 10 years of the CD, which meant an awful lot of cassettes people who weren't on the cutting edge of the CD transition bought in the '80s/early '90s were being re-bought as CDs.
In fact, during those years, I actually bought three of quite a few country albums that came out between 1983 and 1988 -- one on LP for home, one on tape for the car, and years later, one on CD.
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
100 percent correct. Listen to his first two albums -- country to the core. Even his remake of the Fleetwoods' "Mr. Blue" (on "No Fences") was done in Western swing style. With "Ropin' the Wind," he started to take more chances. Still, even "Shameless" had steel guitar in it (and never got any pop airplay despite its Billy Joel origins), and there was no way "Rodeo," "What She's Doing Now" and "Papa Loved Mama" were ever going to cross over, even to AC.
_That_ makes sense, and it happened across the board, not just in country or for Garth Brooks.
DrAkbar
Star Participant
What time will you be over? Nurse Jeff has saved a steaming bowl of menudo for you!
Speaking of songs that didn't crossover for Garth, don't forget The Dance. Even Delilah played it.
That sounds like a curse...
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awsherrill
Frequent Participant
I know of at least one top-100 market CHR station that played "Shameless" and perhaps one other Garth song...and air talent was strictly instructed to identify the artist as "Garth", no last name, no mention of hats, etc.
They apparently didn't report playing it since the song didn't chart in any format other than country. This was before the advent of monitored charts.
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
Country crossovers were a big factor in pop radio in the '70s and early '80s, but dropped off sharply once MTV help kick-start CHR formats. The late '80s to mid-'90s country boom generated very little crossover action, and just about all the action that was generated was at AC, not CHR. Mary-Chapin Carpenter's "Passionate Kisses" charted AC, as did Rodney Crowell's "What Kind of Love."
But both of those songs featured jangly guitars -- no steel, no fiddle -- and were sung with no trace of a twang or a drawl. Meanwhile, the most consistent country chart toppers of those years -- Brooks, George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire -- not only didn't cross over, their labels never even tried to push them to AC or CHR, simply because country music was a phenomenon that was attracting millions of listeners in their 30s and 40s from all parts of the country who'd been alienated by the grunge and rap that were pushing CHR out of their rock/pop/traditional soul comfort zones. They were buying more than enough product to make lots of money for the major labels, several of which set up separate Nashville divisions.
Alan Jackson (another '90s megastar who never crossed over) touched on this in his hit "Gone Country," in which a burned out singer/songwriter from Los Angeles muses that what's coming out of Nashville "ain't much different from Dylan" and a Long Island woman figures she can go from so-so pop singer to country star just by putting on cowboy boots.
But both of those songs featured jangly guitars -- no steel, no fiddle -- and were sung with no trace of a twang or a drawl. Meanwhile, the most consistent country chart toppers of those years -- Brooks, George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire -- not only didn't cross over, their labels never even tried to push them to AC or CHR, simply because country music was a phenomenon that was attracting millions of listeners in their 30s and 40s from all parts of the country who'd been alienated by the grunge and rap that were pushing CHR out of their rock/pop/traditional soul comfort zones. They were buying more than enough product to make lots of money for the major labels, several of which set up separate Nashville divisions.
Alan Jackson (another '90s megastar who never crossed over) touched on this in his hit "Gone Country," in which a burned out singer/songwriter from Los Angeles muses that what's coming out of Nashville "ain't much different from Dylan" and a Long Island woman figures she can go from so-so pop singer to country star just by putting on cowboy boots.
This is the time of year when country shares tend to go up. Just one year ago, KNIX spent the entire summer in the upper 5s, and sitting comfortably in the Top 5. They're likely to go there again this summer. As pointed out earlier, KMLE is in a rebuilding phase right now. I remember a time not long ago when the rumor was the entire CBS cluster was on the block. That never happened, and now Entercom seems pretty happy with what they've got. The music right now has no explosive core as it did 5 years ago. There's a new generation building steam, and they should see dividends soon. It's a currents-based music, so it goes in cycles. Just wait a few months, and we'll see what happens.
Question: who needed crossover with Garth Brooks and other country artists of that era (Alan Jackson and Clint Black also come to mind), when the music format itself had become more popular?
I recall country music itself expanded its audience, with magazines like Newsweek and Time having articles about artists like Garth selling out stadiums, and they referred to it as a phenomenon.
Country has had several periods (two of which I can recall) where the music format itself expanded and gained former pop and rock fans -- the Urban Cowboy era of the early 80's, and the 90's Garth - Shania era. Shania even played at a Super Bowl. That's how big the music was at the time.
As for 100 million records, I would think that the multiple copy thing also would have applied to other high selling artists of that decade, regardless of format.
I recall country music itself expanded its audience, with magazines like Newsweek and Time having articles about artists like Garth selling out stadiums, and they referred to it as a phenomenon.
Country has had several periods (two of which I can recall) where the music format itself expanded and gained former pop and rock fans -- the Urban Cowboy era of the early 80's, and the 90's Garth - Shania era. Shania even played at a Super Bowl. That's how big the music was at the time.
As for 100 million records, I would think that the multiple copy thing also would have applied to other high selling artists of that decade, regardless of format.
That's a really good point, at least for the first half of the decade. Unquestionably, Garth and his crew brought more listeners to the format than Willie & Merle. The popularity of these artists caused a large number of radio stations to flip formats to country music. So instead of country artists seeking airplay on other formats, there were a number of radio stations changing formats to country. This was a big thing in the early 90s. One of those stations that flipped to country during this time was KMLE. At the time, KMLE was owned by Shamrock, and that company owned several country stations including KZLA in LA. KNIX was #1 in Phoenix, so it was an obvious target. And thus began the competition between KMLE and KNIX. Thanks to Garth Brooks!
DrAkbar
Star Participant
KMLE was a religious station and the format flipped to country when Shamrock bought it in August of 1988. They came prepared to challenge KNIX as the country station for a younger generation of listeners. IIRC the first morning team was Taylor & The Bear, who offered a more uptempo and contemporary sound than W. Steven Martin at KNIX. Then came Garth Brooks and other new artists who quickly dethroned the old guard of country music.
Exactly correct. The year 1988 is also the year that a lot of heritage country artists such as George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard lost their record contracts, and those older acts were replaced by something that became known at "hot new country." That was the driving force for radio ratings, record sales, and popular culture. Garth was part of something called the "Class of 89," which included Clint Black, Travis Tritt, and Alan Jackson.
Right now the music appears to be at a bit of a crossroads. There is a new generation coming into the music right now. If they take hold and attract a lot of attention outside of the format, it could draw new listeners to country radio again.
I would think that the format is in pretty good shape right now in spite of being at a crossroads as it searches for a new crop of stars to propel the format forward. The fact that WNSH edged both KKGO as well as KPLX/Dallas (aka 995 the Wolf) as the top cuming country station nationwide is certainly great news for the format as well as Entercom as Lon Helton pointed out in his Country Aircheck newsletter last Monday. KMLE and KNIX are also among the top ten 25-54 stations here aren't they?
The vaunted 'class of 1989' which included Clint Black, Garth Brooks and Lorrie Morgan (top three new singles artists of that year according to Billboard), with Alan Jackson, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Travis Tritt all of whom made their chart debuts that year certainly juiced the format popularity-wise.
Toss in a deluge of future superstars including Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw, Tracy Lawrence, Martina McBride, Brooks & Dunn, and Toby Keith among others who came along between 1990-94, and the format'a foundation for success and stellar ratings was set for the next couple of decades.
Eight of the ten most played artists on the radio between 2000 and 2009 were country artists (the other two were Nickelback and Green Day), and McGraw led everybody with well over 7.8 million spins, and 'Something Like That' tallied almost 489,000 spins as the most played song of the decade according to Nielsen, so the format is on the lookout for its next generation of stars and superstars, with some promising newcomers already established including Brett Young and red-hot Luke Combs.
The vaunted 'class of 1989' which included Clint Black, Garth Brooks and Lorrie Morgan (top three new singles artists of that year according to Billboard), with Alan Jackson, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Travis Tritt all of whom made their chart debuts that year certainly juiced the format popularity-wise.
Toss in a deluge of future superstars including Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw, Tracy Lawrence, Martina McBride, Brooks & Dunn, and Toby Keith among others who came along between 1990-94, and the format'a foundation for success and stellar ratings was set for the next couple of decades.
Eight of the ten most played artists on the radio between 2000 and 2009 were country artists (the other two were Nickelback and Green Day), and McGraw led everybody with well over 7.8 million spins, and 'Something Like That' tallied almost 489,000 spins as the most played song of the decade according to Nielsen, so the format is on the lookout for its next generation of stars and superstars, with some promising newcomers already established including Brett Young and red-hot Luke Combs.
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