Garth Brooks

Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and charity director who performs country music.

Controversies

Used CDs

In 1993, Garth Brooks, who had criticized music stores which sold used CDs since it led to a loss in royalty payments, persuaded Capitol Records not to ship his album In Pieces to stores which engaged in such practices. This led to several anti-trust lawsuits against the record label and ended with Capitol shipping the CDs to the stores after all. http://www.planetgarth.com/gbnews/garth049.shtml Brooks lamented that the record label had "sold out".

Related Topics:
1993 - Anti-trust

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Best selling solo artist?

In 1999 the Recording Industry Association of America made an announcement that Garth Brooks was the best-selling solo artist of the 20th century in America. http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/press1999/111099.asp This conclusion drew a fair amount of disbelief and outrage from the press and music fans, who did not feel that Brooks had the stature or musical gravitas for this distinction, and who felt that surely Elvis Presley must have sold more records than Brooks. This latter point led to much discussion and criticism of how RIAA does its certifications and lifetime totals, and how those methods may well have been faulty during the period decades ago in which Presley got many of his sales. http://www.elvisinfonet.com/elvisvsbeatlespart1.html http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~presley/elnews-ElvisRecordSales.htm

Related Topics:
Recording Industry Association of America - Gravitas - Elvis Presley

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In any case, Brooks, while proud of his sales accomplishments, deferred to "The King" and stated that he too believed that Presley must have sold more.

Related Topics:
More recent figures - Led Zeppelin

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Absence on the pop singles charts

While Brooks scored many number ones on the Billboard 200 pop album chart, very few of his singles reached the parallel Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, an odd discrepancy. The Hot 100 chart has been the subject of much criticism over the years due to the way it has been compiled, especially since it stopped using sales as its main source of information. In 2005, long after Brooks' peak success, the Pop 100 was launched by Billboard in answer to these critics. Although this new chart is still criticized by some, it shows stronger placings for country songs.

Related Topics:
Billboard 200 - Billboard Hot 100 - 2005 - Pop 100

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Support for gay rights

There have been rumours of alleged homosexuality since early in Brooks' career. Though it would seem evident that he is not based on his marriages to women, this is not always an indicator of actual sexual preference. Brooks has consistently denied the rumours but his public actions have only fuelled speculation. He appeared in the year 2000 at the Equality Rocks benefit concert for gay rights. He sang a duet with openly gay singer George Michael.

Related Topics:
Homosexuality - 2000 - Equality Rocks - George Michael

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In the lyrics to his song "We Shall be Free", Brooks sings "When we're free to love anyone we choose," a reference to gay relationships. However, this is by no means any indication of a homosexual preference; the song deals with all issues of fascism, racism and bigotry and is a song about how everyone is equal, rather than a "coming out" song. Brooks won a 1993 GLAAD Media Award for the song and his subsequent comments about it, such as, "But if you're in love, you've got to follow your heart and trust that God will explain to us why we sometimes fall in love with people of the same sex." http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/entertain/040599en.htm

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Because of these gay-positive comments, and a close and heavily publicized relationship with his own lesbian sister, Brooks has become one of very few country music gay icons. (By comparison, in the pop or rock worlds none of these stances would cause much notice.)

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