Who Was the Most Popular ’90s Country Artist? Here’s the Data

It's got to be Garth Brooks, right? Country music of the 1990s was defined by the "Class of '89," which included Brooks, Clint Black and Alan Jackson, but only one of those men has the record for most Entertainer of the Year awards.

By some metrics, the Oklahoma native may be the most successful, but in terms of most weeks spent at No. 1 on the country airplay chart, he ranks third — barely. We added up all the songs across 520 weeks and found that one artist ruled nearly 10 percent of the time. The video above breaks it down in under two minutes.

Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Shania Twain and Faith HIll also fare well on this list of '90s stars. You'll find that several well-known '80s stars did well in the decade's first half, too, which is to be expected. Reba McEntire and Alabama are among the more popular '90s country music artists, but they didn't top this data.

It's important to note is that, in January of 1990, the airplay charts started to be tabulated using data from Nielsen instead of data reported by radio programmers. This took the human element out of reporting airplay, which led to a massive change in the industry.

This list is based on reported country airplay charts at Billboard and was made using the Flourish app. Sales figures are not included in this data, but duets and multi-artist collaborations count for all artists involved.

WATCH: The Top Country Artists of the 1980s

LOOK: 50 Essential '90s Country Songs