| Garth
Brooks is a pivotal figure in the
history of country music, no matter how
much some country purists would like to
deny it. With his commercially savvy
fusion of post-Merle Haggard country,
honky tonk, post-folk-rock sensitive
singer/songwriter sensibilities, and
'70s arena rock dramatics, Brooks
brought country music to a new audience
in the '90s -- namely, a mass audience.
Before Brooks, it was inconceivable for
a country artist to go multi-platinum.
He shattered that barrier in 1991, when
his second album, No Fences, began its
chart domination, and its follow-up,
Ropin' the Wind, became the first
country album to debut at the top of the
pop charts; No Fences would eventually
sell a record-shattering 13 million
copies. After Garth, country music had
successfully carved a permanent place
for itself on the pop charts. In the
process, it lost a lot of the
traditionalism that had always been its
hallmark, but that is precisely why
Brooks is important.
Garth Brooks is the son of Troyal and
Colleen Carroll Brooks. Colleen was a
country singer herself, recording a
handful of records for Capitol in the
mid-'50s that never experienced any
chart success. As a child, Garth was
interested in music and frequently sang
at family gatherings, but he
concentrated on athletics. He received a
partial athletic scholarship at Oklahoma
State University as a javelin tosser,
but he wound up dropping the sport
during his collegiate career. While he
was at college, Brooks began singing in
local Oklahoma clubs, often with lead
guitarist Ty England.
After he graduated with an
advertising degree in December of 1984,
Garth Brooks decided to try to forge out
a career as a country singer. In 1985 he
traveled to Nashville with hopes of
being discovered by a record label. Just
23 hours after arriving in Nashville, he
returned to Oklahoma, frustrated with
the industry, his prospects, and his
naïve dreams. Brooks continued to
perform in Oklahoma clubs, and in 1986,
he married his college girlfriend, Sandy
Mahl.
The couple moved to Nashville in
1987, this time with a better idea of
how the music industry operated. Brooks
began making connections with various
songwriters and producers, and he sang
on a lot of songwriter's demo tapes.
Although he had made several connections
within the industry and had a powerful
management team, every label in town was
refusing to sign him. In 1988, six weeks
after Capitol Records passed on his
demo, one of the label's executives saw
Brooks sing at a local club. Impressed
with the performance, the executive
convinced the label to sign Garth.
Brooks recorded his first album with
producer Allen Reynolds at the end of
1988; the self-titled debut appeared
early in 1989. The album was an instant
success, with its first single, "Much
Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),"
climbing into the country Top Ten.
Garth's debut was a success, crossing
over into the pop album charts, but it
was overshadowed by the blockbuster
appeal of Clint Black, as well other
similar new male vocalists like Travis
Tritt and Alan Jackson. Within a year,
Brooks would tower above them all with
his surprise, widespread success.
Garth Brooks had three other hit
singles -- the number one "If Tomorrow
Never Comes," the number two "Not
Counting You," and the number one "The
Dance" -- but it was his second album,
No Fences, that established him as a
superstar. No Fences was released in the
fall of 1990, preceded by the massive
hit single "Friends in Low Places." No
Fences spent 23 weeks at the top of the
country charts and sold 700,000 copies
within the first ten days of its
release. Throughout 1990 and 1991,
Brooks had a string of number one
country hits from the album, including
"Unanswered Prayers," "Two of a Kind,
Workin' on a Full House," and "The
Thunder Rolls." By 1993, No Fences would
sell over ten million copies.
Not only did his record sales break
all the accepted country conventions,
but so did Garth Brooks' concerts. By
the end of 1990, he was selling out
stadiums within minutes and was putting
on stadium-sized shows, patterned after
'70s rock extravaganzas. Brooks used a
cordless, headset microphone so he could
run around his large stage. He had an
elaborate light show, explosions, and
even a harness so he could swing out
above the crowd and sing to them. It was
the first time any country artist had
incorporated such rock & roll techniques
into stage shows.
Ropin' the Wind, Brooks' third album,
was released in September of 1991 and
became the first country record to debut
at the top of the pop charts. Ropin' the
Wind matched the success of No Fences,
selling over ten million copies within
its first two years of release and
spawning the number one hit singles
"Shameless," "What She's Doing Now," and
"The River."
By the end of 1991, Brooks had become
a genuine popular music phenomenon --
even his 1992 Christmas album, Beyond
the Season, went multi-platinum -- and
there were no signs of his momentum
slowing down. Naturally, a backlash
began to develop in the fall of 1992,
beginning with the release of "We Shall
Be Free," the first single from his
fourth album. Featuring a strong gospel
underpinning, the single stalled at
number 12 and many radio stations
refused to play it. It was indicative of
the eclectic nature of his forthcoming
album, The Chase, which pushed the
boundaries of contemporary country. The
Chase debuted at number one upon its
October 1992 release and by the end of
the year, it sold over five million
copies. Nevertheless, that number was
half the size of the figures for his two
previous albums and there was
speculation in the media that Brooks'
career had already peaked.
Sensing that he was in danger of
losing his core audience, Brooks
returned to straight country with 1993's
In Pieces. The album was critically
acclaimed and sold several million
copies, though it was clear that Brooks
would not reach the stratospheric
commercial heights of No Fences and
Ropin' the Wind again. Even so, he
remained one of the most successful
artists in popular music, one of the few
guaranteed to sell millions of records
with each new album, as well as sell out
concerts around the world.
The Hits, which was only available
for a year, was released in the fall of
1994 and would eventually sell over
eight million albums. Brooks released
Fresh Horses, his first album of new
material in two years, in November of
1995; within six months of its release,
it had sold over three million copies.
Despite its promising start, Fresh
Horses plateaued quickly, topping out at
quadruple platinum -- a healthy number
for any artist, but a little
disappointing considering Brooks'
superstar status. Brooks decided to push
his seventh album, appropriately titled
Sevens, very hard to confirm his
superstar status. Originally, it was
scheduled to be released in August of
1997, when he would promote it with a
huge concert in Central Park. Plans went
awry when Capitol Records experienced a
huge management shakeup, leaving many of
his contacts at the label out in the
cold. Upset at the new management,
Brooks held back the release of Sevens
until he received commitment for a major
marketing push for the album. He went
ahead and performed the Central Park
concert, which received major coverage
in the media. On the strength of the
concert, Capitol acquiesced to Brooks'
demands, and Sevens was released in
November of 1997. Sevens catapulted to
number one upon its release and quickly
went multi-platinum over the holiday
season.
The following spring, Brooks pulled
his first six albums out of print and
issued The Limited Series, a box set
that contained all six records plus
bonus tracks. Once all two million
copies of The Limited Series were sold,
the individual albums would remain out
of print until their tenth anniversary,
when they would be released only on DVD
audio. The Double Live set followed in
late 1998, and its sales were brisk but
not quite as heavy as projected. In the
spring of 1998, Brooks unsuccessfully
tried out for the San Diego Padres pro
baseball team, a major indication of his
growing desire to expand his success
beyond country music.
Once it became clear that
professional baseball wasn't in his
future, he became fascinated with film,
specifically starring in The Lamb, a
supposed thriller about a conflicted,
tortured rock star called Chris Gaines.
He was determined to win the role, and
he did after extensive lobbying.
Sometime in the spring of 1999, the film
was given the green light with Babyface
as a producer and Brooks as the star.
During pre-production, Brooks decided
the best way to prep for the role was to
become Chris Gaines. He invented a
brooding, leather-clad image and filled
in holes in Gaines' back story by
inventing biographies and a musical
history. The most important piece in the
puzzle was a collection of Gaines'
"greatest hits," since it would prime
audiences for the big-budget spectacular
of The Lamb, scheduled for late 2000.
So, Brooks jumped the gun, recording a
set of 13 songs -- as Chris Gaines --
that would fill in the fictional
singer's history.
As the Chris Gaines album was about
to hit stores, Brooks' new persona was
revealed to the public. Since the
machinations of The Lamb were only known
to music insiders and fans who
religiously followed the trades, Brooks'
sudden re-emergence as a slimmed-down,
soul-patched, shaggy-haired soulful pop
crooner was utterly bizarre to almost
every observer. There was a massive PR
campaign to shed light on Chris Gaines,
complete with a TV special, but the
details were so convoluted that it
couldn't be explained easily. In the
Life of Chris Gaines was released at the
end of September 1999, and although it
entered the charts at number two, it was
a major commercial disappointment; by
the time Christmas rolled around, some
major stores were offering heavy
discounts on the record in hopes of
clearing out unsold stock. Fan
bewilderment over the Gaines project
also likely hurt sales of Brooks' second
holiday record, Garth Brooks & the Magic
of Christmas, a traditional pop-styled
outing that appeared just two months
later.
Brooks kept a low profile through
most of 2000, as the disastrous
marketplace showing of the Chris Gaines
album effectively scuttled plans for The
Lamb. Late in the year, it was announced
that Brooks and his wife were getting a
divorce; the rumors may have proven
premature, though, as Brooks publicly
speculated about preserving his family
life by retiring after his next solo
project. |
