It hasn't gone platinum yet, but I think it recently went plastic. Steady seller at gigs. No pressure from record labels to follow it up by a certain date or end up in breach of contract, and no pressure to compromise the music to make it more commercial or "current". It took a while to break even on its recording costs, but every sale now is profit without having to sell 800,000 copies before I see a penny of it, no advance to have to pay back if it doesn't sell a million, and no label execs deleting it from the catalog for not jumping off the shelves in its first month of release. Just a few of the perks of being a local yokel.
A quote from GB on the Shameless wiki entry: "Shameless" was the longest shot we took with a song. I was talked into becoming a member of a CD club...you know, the 40,000 CD's for a penny deal. With those clubs, they write you with the selection of the month. If you don't write back and cancel, then they send it to you and charge you for it. I was on the road for six months with no one to check the mail and came home to find six compact discs in my mailbox. Storm Front by Billy Joel was one of them. I hadn't listened to Billy Joel since the late seventies, probably since Glass Houses. I fell in love with the album and fell back in love with Billy Joel's music. One of his songs really captured me, a song called "Shameless." I kept watching it, and when he did not release it as a single, we contacted his people in the hopes that we could cut it. His people sent us a letter acknowledging that he knew who I was and was very honored that I was cutting it. That was quite a compliment for me then, as it is now. My hope is that Billy, as writer, hears this cut and says, "Yeah, man, the guy's got balls."
Do I have to be a Garth Brooks fan to recognize that 170 million records sold is a lot? Or that in the early 90's, where I was living in Colorado Springs, there were more country radio stations than rock stations? Or that multiple clubs had "line dancing night" or "two step night" literally every night of the week? I don't think one has to be a fan of something in order to recognize that it exists. But thanks for coming out.
No, you just have to know something about what you’re criticizing. I said GB was really good. You contested the statement without knowledge about the artist. That’s what I object to.
I think you need to go back and hurl your negativity at the right guy. I said pretty clearly that while not a fan, I credit Garth Brooks and modern country in general as being the standard-bearer for what used to be rock music. Reading comprehension helps you and me.
Almost 20pages of an over-the-hill primarily Beatles loving forum of why Garth is so popular. My elbow and my arm find that funny/humourous.
It wasn't till the Central Park concert that I got in to Garth, The Hits cd became a constant with me that summer. He did achieve amazing numbers, probably had a broader base appeal than many. While he does seem to be a genuinely nice guy, his crying and on stage antics can get to be too much after a while. After Sevens came out I lost interest in his music, but still wanted to catch him live, and I did at Yankee stadium 5 or 6 years ago. It wasn't quite the exciting show that Central Park was, but glad to have seen him. I don't see him as being such a head scratcher though , there could be many others to question how they made it all.
He was a KISS fan and he was paying attention. And that's not a slight... He made his concerts a visual spectacle that people wanted to attend and experience just as much they wanted to hear the music. And they buy albums.
I would say he studied the KISS playbook hard, highlighted the parts that worked and avoided all of their mistakes. He graduated from university with a degree in advertising/marketing which would serve him very well later.
Excuse me if this sounds like contrived BS. I just don't buy it. That's the sort of thing you do in college. And I refuse to believe that Garth and/or his people did not get promos from EVERYBODY. Is it possible that Sandy turned him on to it?
Isn't Garth Brooks, by reputation, quite a decent, nice, honest, hard-working guy? That really disappointed me, as I loathe his music and everything associated with his corruption of American country music into lowest-common denominator schlock for non-discerning country fans and taste-lacking music fans in general who like to be spoon-fed McDonald's Happy Meals of music. It's akin to how distraught I was to find out Jon "Bon Jovi" was also a decent, nice, honest, hard-working guy. If only he'd be a crackhead wife-beater, I would have felt better....
To each their own, but it doesn’t have to be old style country to be enjoyable. He actually does have some good songs, and I’m not in to the quasi country acts of the last 20 years or so. Bon Jovi did have a few good hits in their day but didn’t stand test of time to me. However everything doesn’t have to be high art to be liked.
I remember back in high school kids would think they were superior to others by pretending they didn't like certain musical artists or bands.
Todd Snider, who also wrote a song called “Beer Run” different than the one Garth Brooks performed, tells a story about meeting Brooks and him being a really good guy. Snider says that, because he’s in a different part of the country music world that feels antagonistic toward mainstream country, people always want him to say that Brooks was a jerk or stole his song idea or whatever, but it’s just not true.
Have you listened to the lyrics? He has a song about spousal abuse, and human equality among other non-schlocky subjects. I don't find his music to be for those without taste. I'm not a big fan, but I can understand why so many people like him.
Great that you've developed an additional financial stream. If you don't mind me asking a couple of questions, how many units did you have to sell to reach the break even point? And how much do you sell your CDs/LPs for?
If memory serves me the other Beer Run was written by one of these Nashville songwriting teams using the how to write a hit formula. Snider tells a great story (it's on You Tube) of meeting one of the 3 or 4 writers after there had been some previous attorneys back and forth regarding the two songs. It's pretty funny, like most all of Snider's stories.
I couldn't find the one I was thinking of, but I found another Snider story about Garth being a good guy. And, like you said, pretty much all of Snider's stories are worth a laugh or two, so here's the link: When Todd Snider Met Garth Brooks: Read An Excerpt From I Never Met A Story I Didn't Like - American Songwriter
