Nashville Anthems: Dissecting 80s & 90s Country Music
Have you always thought there was something special about 80s and 90s country music that you've never been able to put your finger on? Why does this music stand out? Well, let's don our cowboy hats, adjust our oversized belt buckles, tease that hair, and see if we can get the bottom of it, by picking apart one song at a time.
Nashville Anthems: Dissecting 80s & 90s Country Music
Dissecting "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks - 1990
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What better way to usher in the 90s than with the signature song by the 90s' signature artist? With his 1990 hit Friends in Low Places, Garth Brooks did nothing less than usher country music into the wider cultural conscience. But why? What is it about this song, and Brooks's interpretation of it, that resonated so strongly that it essentially set the tone for country music in the 90s? And why didn't Mark Chesnutt's version have a similar effect?