Why was Garth Brooks so popular in Ireland?

Steve F

Yeah terrible nosy me

RiverOfLove

It was like a lottery this morning. I had no luck Disappointed severely. I'd say he would be epic live.
Gutted.

Chucken, how did you get on this morning?

fergiesfolly

Got my tickets this morning.
Mixture of delight and relief. My entire family are going, so its going to be a great day out.
Can understand that he's not everyones cup of tea, but he was hugely popular here, before he retired in 2001.
He outsold every artist( country or otherwise) in the world and has a devoted fanbase.
The Croke Park concerts achieved legendary status and I'm not in the least bit surprised with the sellouts this time around.

Amirani

I'd genuinely never heard of this Brooks lad until all the furore in the news lately.

Agricola

Croke Park sold out 3 times in 90 minutes for this guy! Im staggered. What is really baffling about all this is the excitement amongst people who were toddlers when he last played here. I've too cousins who would have been in primary school back in the mid 90's and despite the fact they don't own one record of his, or actually ever talked about him one time in the last 15 years, the fact they got tickets for it wouldnt have generated more excitement if they had won the lottery! Jesus, herd mentality is a potent thing.

B_Rabbit

NiallSparky wrote: »

I'd genuinely never heard of this Brooks lad until all the furore in the news lately.

Same, but shur I bought 6 tickets anyway! Be some craic

CatFromHue

NiallSparky wrote: »

I'd genuinely never heard of this Brooks lad until all the furore in the news lately.

He's no Chris Gaines that's for sure

SamAK

His music makes me shrivel up and die a little inside.

BUT. I shall respect the opinions of 240,000 people.

And i'd love to go, it'd be an utter culchie fest but i'd buy a ticket just to feed off the energy of 80,000 ecstatic people.

240,000 tickets at 60(?) quid each is 14.4 million yo-yos. Garth has the formula locked down.

Although I think it is rather cheeky of him to announce a third date. Like he was surprised the first two sold out. Ha. Man is a marketing genius.

Hope those that are going have a ball..

Sunglasses Ron

Sulla Felix wrote: »

He'd sell out the O2 tonight ffs, still massively popular with idiots all over the country.

That is roughly numerically equivalent to the minister who said we could expect about 10,000 East Europeans to care for our open border 10 or so years back :pac:

NiallSparky wrote: »

I'd genuinely never heard of this Brooks lad until all the furore in the news lately.

Agricola wrote: »

Croke Park sold out 3 times in 90 minutes for this guy! Im staggered. What is really baffling about all this is the excitement amongst people who were toddlers when he last played here. I've too cousins who would have been in primary school back in the mid 90's and despite the fact they don't own one record of his, or actually ever talked about him one time in the last 15 years, the fact they got tickets for it wouldnt have generated more excitement if they had won the lottery! Jesus, herd mentality is a potent thing.

Ditto, I can just about remember his name, and the chorus of exactly one of his songs, yet a quick wiki reveals that in terms of post 1991 sales, he is bigger than The Beatles, Oasis, Michael Jackson, U2, Tupac, Eminem, Madonna, Rihanna, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Nirvana, in fact bigger than any dead or alive artist or prominent new artist of the last 20 years whose names would seem more obvious, back catalogs and all, bar Elvis. People at the start of this thread seemed to think he was some flavour of the month consigned to a narrow belt between Alabama and Killybegs.

But it begs the question- who the hell made him the second biggest after Elvis? For such a successful guy I have never heard him name dropped on US TV or film, he has never been invited in to do a pointless guest spot on an awful new Simpsons, he has never been sent up by South Park. Where the hell is he in US pop culture? Until the other day I would not have recognised a photo of him if you offered me a grand.

veryangryman

NiallSparky wrote: »

I'd genuinely never heard of this Brooks lad until all the furore in the news lately.

Of course not. With respect, there are better lies you can say to look cool on a message board.

Sunglasses Ron

veryangryman wrote: »

Of course not. With respect, there are better lies you can say to look cool on a message board.

Maybe I just wasn't listening hard enough but I would struggle to think of when or where I have heard him mentioned this century! Like I said above, for the 2nd biggest selling artist of the last 20 years his name is virtually absent from US pop culture (i.e. he being referred to on TV shows or films)

whiskeyman

fergiesfolly wrote: »

My entire family are going, so its going to be a great day out.

I reckon the organised crime gangs will have a field day over that weekend as masses of country folk abandon their houses and villages and come up to the big schmoke for some country music shenanigans.

Sunglasses Ron

whiskeyman wrote: »

I reckon the organised crime gangs will have a field day over that weekend as masses of country folk abandon their houses and villages and come up to the big schmoke for some country music shenanigans.

On the contrary I would imagine he is some sort of demi god to the traveller mobs who have been going on trips down the country from Tallaght as of late.

If we assume the stereotyping here is correct and the 1.3 million people in and around Dublin are not interested, nor are the 500,000 foreigners, and the million fleggers in the North wouldn't be seen dead at any event held in Croker, nearly 10% of the remaining population are going to this. Cut out the children too young and the people too old for the crowds and the noise, that leaves about one tenth of the able bodied, non Dub, Irish population of this island going to the gig of an artist who hasn't been heard of in nearly 20 years, with maybe twice as many as that wanting to go.

Insane, it really is! I just don't get where all these fans have been hiding. You would think that with this level of popularity his stuff would get a regular spin in some of the cheesier nightclubs.

BadCompany

Agricola wrote: »

Croke Park sold out 3 times in 90 minutes for this guy! Im staggered. What is really baffling about all this is the excitement amongst people who were toddlers when he last played here. I've too cousins who would have been in primary school back in the mid 90's and despite the fact they don't own one record of his, or actually ever talked about him one time in the last 15 years, the fact they got tickets for it wouldnt have generated more excitement if they had won the lottery! Jesus, herd mentality is a potent thing.

Well said. I can't understand where this has come from. It's like the media hype up this gig (and others) to be something "not to be missed" and thousands of people with little or no interest in music completely buy into it. I'd liken it to the Bruce Springsteen phenomenon in Ireland of the last few years. Friends I met back in college were just going mental for him "oh can't wait for The Boss in June!", though they genuinely wouldn't have been able to name more than one song of his a mere two or three years earlier. Springsteen didn't come down in the last shower, it makes no sense.

Edit: Not saying for a second that there aren't thousands of genuine Brooks fans going, and more luck to them! He wouldn't be my cup of tea but horses for courses. I just think the hype has led an unusually large percent of people just following the crowd.

SamAK

NiallSparky wrote: »

I'd genuinely never heard of this Brooks lad until all the furore in the news lately.

veryangryman wrote: »

Of course not. With respect, there are better lies you can say to look cool on a message board.

I don't give a hoot about looking cool here, but I can honestly say, hand on heart, that the only time I can ever recall hearing the name Garth Brooks was six years ago, when a lad in my class (a country lad, in a country school :rolleyes:) was saying that he was 'fookin seerious boy'.

Apart from that, the next I heard of him was in the indo when the man flew in on a private jet to announce the tour.

Not surprising really, given that my music tastes and social circle are far, far, far removed from the country scene!

Music divides society into individual groups in a remarkable way!

newport2

Disappointment for fans from the wild west.....

http://mayoglobe.ie/breaking-news-garth-brooks-bans-mayo-residents-shows/

Steve F

Ha,ha thats just hilarious!!
For all those asking where all this madness has come from I think it's simply a case of "I was there and bought the T-shirt" for a vast majority of the ticket buyers.I have no doubt there are some hardened GB fans but most couldn't care less about seeing him and it's just the ''look what I got tickets to" brigade or they are going to sell them at an obcene amount nearer to the gig date:eek:

DEFTLEFTHAND

I wonder how much the GAA will see out of this. What's their deal with renting Croke Park? Is it a set fee or do they take their cut from a percentage of ticket sales?

Alun

NiallSparky wrote: »

I'd genuinely never heard of this Brooks lad until all the furore in the news lately.

Me neither, and I can't even be arsed Googling his name to find out what he's 'famous' for either.

patmac

ollie1 wrote: »

When I was in school they made us do line dancing in PE with Garth Brooks songs. I still wake up at night with nightmares about it

Jeez, being beat about the place by the Christian Brothers doesn't seem so bad now!

Jamsiek

NiallSparky wrote: »

I'd genuinely never heard of this Brooks lad until all the furore in the news lately.

Count yourself lucky. I had to endure the craze the first time around. I was hoping those days were over. Thankfully I moved abroad so won't be tormented with him for the next 6 months. You have my sympathies.

numbers man

Agricola wrote: »

Croke Park sold out 3 times in 90 minutes for this guy! Im staggered. What is really baffling about all this is the excitement amongst people who were toddlers when he last played here. I've too cousins who would have been in primary school back in the mid 90's and despite the fact they don't own one record of his, or actually ever talked about him one time in the last 15 years, the fact they got tickets for it wouldnt have generated more excitement if they had won the lottery! Jesus, herd mentality is a potent thing.

Herd mentality is definitely a part of it. However, he is one of the biggest selling artists of all time, an estimated total of 135 million units. In fact, when you look at those who have sold more or in and around the same, all of them would sell out just as quick. The only artists still in business that have sold more are Madonna, Elton John, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, and Queen (not sure if I'd count those who are missing main band members etc.)

Add into this the fact that Ireland took to Brooks a lot more than other countries, we were almost the niche market for his genre, I'm not surprised at all it sold out so fast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

RiverOfLove

Steve F wrote: »

Ha,ha thats just hilarious!!
For all those asking where all this madness has come from I think it's simply a case of "I was there and bought the T-shirt" for a vast majority of the ticket buyers.I have no doubt there are some hardened GB fans but most couldn't care less about seeing him and it's just the ''look what I got tickets to" brigade or they are going to sell them at an obcene amount nearer to the gig date:eek:

I fell in love with much of his music back in the 90s around 92 or 93 when I was about 10. I remember one xmas asking santa for a garth brooks tape and a walkman, maybe xmas of 93 or 94. I remember having a lot of his tapes and my sister too.

My love for Garth Brooks and his music was always there. It faded into the background from the early 00s as life took over - school, college, work, more collage, work.

I was late moving to ditigal music when I bought my first ipod in 2010 and have much music on that. Before that I always had a walkman or discman on me. In my music collection is Garth Brooks and more country music too.

My sister is a die hard fan of him and has so much on him. In 2009 or 2010, she informed me that he was gigging in vagas and I got excited in hope he would start touring again.
Off topic, my username is from an american country singer known as george strait. Brooks is fan of George Strait and fell in love with a song called - unwound - from Strait in the early 80s. We wouldn't know Brooks as he is today if it wasn't for Strait. Brooks was into rock music in the 80s and he could have swung that direction and went into rock music but he took inspiration from George Strait and went into country music.

Last time George Strait played at this side of the Atlantic was in the 80s in London. Its beyond me how Strait wasn't big here.

argentum

argentum wrote: »

Since he seems to have fans on this forun I'll let you in on a little secret..Every culchie in the country is going to want Santa to bring him or her tickets to see the man himself next year.He's playing the same type of gig as Bruce in the stadiums around the country following by a few nights in Dublin RDS.The deals done but won't be announced yet

I quoted the above last July so i know what i'm talking about DON'T BUY OFF TOUTS OR WEBSITES
When the stage is actually configured extra tickets will go on sale just like One direction hold off and you will get some

RiverOfLove

argentum wrote: »

I quoted the above last July so i know what i'm talking about DON'T BUY OFF TOUTS OR WEBSITES
When the stage is actually configured extra tickets will go on sale just like One direction hold off and you will get some

Rumour has it that aikan promotions has booked hotels in kilkenny for the week after croker. From will leahy twitter.

gnashman

argentum wrote: »

I quoted the above last July so i know what i'm talking about DON'T BUY OFF TOUTS OR WEBSITES
When the stage is actually configured extra tickets will go on sale just like One direction hold off and you will get some

how are you going to prove this to people if it is true ,,,where did u get this from or who

MRnotlob606

I like friends in low places nice feel good song, But i think Garth brooks songs are overated and lack real depth

Mrs Garth Brooks

argentum wrote: »

I quoted the above last July so i know what i'm talking about DON'T BUY OFF TOUTS OR WEBSITES
When the stage is actually configured extra tickets will go on sale just like One direction hold off and you will get some

Woo hoo

bnt

Even the amateurs are getting in on the touting e.g. this guy:

Powell sold the tickets through Facebook and freely admits “I jacked up the price.” He claims it wasn’t his doing, however. “They’re like gold-dust. I didn’t have a price in mind - people will come to you with crazy offers. It was first come, first served with the highest bid…. When someone offered me £100, the next person offered £120. I just accepted what people were willing to pay.”

Powell sold the six tickets for a total of €774, having paid €428.

“I spoke to my mum, who was sitting on Ticketmaster. She was trying to buy tickets for my neighbour. My neighbour offered £100 sterling for the first two tickets and then I posted that I had four more to sell on Facebook.”

By way of contrast: I get to see The Aristocrats in a small central Dublin venue in a few weeks' time. About €20 to get my brain bent by some of the greatest musicians alive today - no exaggeration. Where's the "smug git" smiley?

kupus

I dont understand the hate, y'all sound like a bunch of whining whingers, waaaahhhh them boys are going to a concert and my favorite band that nobody else has heard of wont come to Ireland (probably cos they never heard of the fukkin place) waaaaaaahhh

But one of the biggest recording artist of all time is coming to Ireland, to kickstart and fine tune his world tour (which is a massive privilege btw) and ye still whinge.

Get a f88kin life

....and as for derek mooney whinging all week how he hates country music,
you listen to showtunes and musicals ya t1t. 'nuff said.