Garth Brooks Is First Artist to Chart in Every Decade Since the 1980s
Just a couple of weeks into 2020, Garth Brooks has notched yet another decade milestone. The singer's duet will Blake Shelton, "Dive Bar," rises up three spots to No. 21 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated Jan. 11, making him the first artist to chart in five consecutive decades.
The media organization reports that Brooks has now appeared on the chart in the '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s and '20s. His first outing came in March of 1989 with "Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old)," which debuted at No. 94 but peaked that July at No. 8. Since then, Brooks has gone on to place a total of 89 songs on the Hot Country Songs chart, including 19 No. 1 hits and 36 Top 10 tracks.
While Brooks is the first country artist of the 2020s to boast the five-decade streak, he's not the only performer to hit the milestone. Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton have also charted songs in six distinct decades, spanning from the '60s to the '10s.
In order to break an overall record, Brooks would have to continue to chart songs past the 2040s: George Jones boasts a seven-decade streak, beginning in the 1950s and lasting until 2011.
Brooks' year-end and decade accolades aren't limited to chart placement. In December, he was named as the top-selling live act of the country genre, ranking at No. 24 on Pollstar's year-end list of top tours worldwide. The ranking was especially impressive considering that, compared to many of his contemporaries, Brooks didn't play a whole lot of shows that year. In 2019, he played just 13 shows across 10 cities. In contrast, Carrie Underwood -- who ranked at No. 44 on the year-end list -- played over five times as many dates.
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