Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks, born Troyal Garth Brooks in 1962 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is one of the most commercially successful recording artists in American history and a defining figure in the country boom of the 1990s. He began performing in Oklahoma bars while attending Oklahoma State University before relocating to Nashville, where his self-titled debut arrived in 1989 and set him on a trajectory toward becoming country music's dominant commercial force of the decade.

Brooks fused traditional country songwriting with the energy and showmanship of arena rock concerts, bringing pyrotechnics, wireless headset microphones and stadium-scale production to a genre previously associated with more modest staging. His catalog blends barroom anthems like «Friends in Low Places» with narrative story-songs such as «The Dance» and «The Thunder Rolls», showcasing a range from rowdy celebration to introspective balladry.

His success helped pull country music into the mainstream of American pop culture, and he is frequently credited alongside artists of his era with expanding the genre's audience well beyond its traditional base. Brooks has continued to record and tour for decades, remaining one of the best-selling solo artists in United States history.