As most of us did, I spent a big part of my youth indulging in music. I picked up a lot of the popular albums of the day from “Licensed to Ill” to “Jagged Little Pill” to “Big Willie Style.”

The bulk of my collection, however, has always consisted of country music. Perhaps it’s my Texas heritage, but I just haven’t found a genre of music as fulfilling as the fiddle playing crowd.

The king of country can only be Garth Brooks.

Over the years, I’ve had many the philosophical argument pitting Garth Brooks against various other musical artists, trying to argue that Mr. Brooks is far more influential and impactful than most artists in the history of American music.

Most of the time, the suggestions of those more impactful than Garth Brooks are laughable.

I’m sorry, but there is no argument that Rick Astley is more important to American music than Garth Brooks.

There are a few that I can’t rightfully dispute, but inevitably those are the greats — Elvis and The Beatles are among them.

I would place Garth Brooks in the top 5 of most impactful and influential musical artists in American History.

Coincidentally, record sales would agree with me. Mr. Brooks is 3rd overall behind only the two aforementioned heavy weights.

After taking multiple years off from music, Garth Brooks has just released a new single which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts. For those keeping count, that’s never happened before.

I doubt anyone would argue that Brooks isn’t pivotal to the success of country music, but I’m sure it’s a bigger pill to swallow to accept him as one of the most important artists of any genre.

And yes, there was the Chris Gaines fiasco but if anyone would actually listen to the album they’d find it to be pretty good overall, though not Brooks’ signature style.

So what do you think?

Leaving the fanboy at the door and being completely honest, who would you place in the top 5 of most influential and impactful musical artists in American history?

(You are pretty much automatically discredited if your list does not include Elvis and The Beatles.)

So I was going to post about a dream I had last night, but my morning sucked so bad that I decided to rant instead about my bad morning. It probably doesn’t really matter to most people, but oh well.

First off, I hate my cat. He woke me up at 4:30am this morning. This has become a 3-4 night/week ritual in which he decides to meow incessantly. If I call for him, he’ll come up in the bed and be quiet for 5-10 minutes before jumping down and meowing again. The toll it’s taking on my sleep is beginning to become unbearable and I really don’t know what to do to make him stop.

Since I wasn’t being allowed to sleep, I went downstairs to log into WoW. I had time on my hands afterall, because going to work at 5:30am isn’t exactly a fun thing to do.

That brings us to what I hate next: large mobs. It seems that Blizzard thinks that the higher in level we get, the bigger mobs need to get. It’s getting to the point that its near unplayable in some places. You simply cannot see anything at all when fighting some of these mobs. If you get another, you can’t tell. If you try to run away, you can’t see what’s in front of you. It’s very annoying when you’ve been woken up at 4:30am by a stupid cat.

Next up: Rascal Flatts (playing on my radio when I got in the car this morning).

If you don’t listen to country music, you may not know who this group is. Country radio seems to want to have their babies. I want them to die in a fire. I simply hate this group. It is the worse musical group in the history of the world and I don’t understand why they get any attention or album sales at all.

Their songs are extremely trite, and the lead singer’s voice is more grating than fingernails on a chalkboard. I’d rather listen to Paris Hilton explain quantum physics than listen to Rascal Flatts. Unfortunately, my local radio station insists on playing their crap every other song.

Which brings me to my local radio station. I hate them too. They play a grand total of 5 different country songs on repeat all day long. I miss Texas where they understand the genre and aren’t catering to these wannabe cowboys who think they’re cool if they listen to Rascal frickin’ Flatts.

Then there’re stupid drivers. Most people will tell you that they hate people talking on their cell phones while driving. I don’t hate that. I hate people who are incapable of doing it effectively.

Case in point: a Toyota FJ Cruiser this morning who literally was swerving back and forth between lanes, without signaling, while talking on his cell phone and varying his speed greatly. Passing him was dicey due to his sudden and inexplicable lane switches.

Furthermore, he had 3 bags of concrete on his luggage rack. This isn’t so alarming in most cases, but this gentlemen seems to think there is no need to tie these things to his vehicle. One slam on the brakes and someone’s getting a concrete bag in the windshield. Luckily, that wasn’t me this morning.

So far, that’s all I hate this morning. Having woken up at 4:30am, though, I’m bound to find more. Consider this a warning. If you’re reading this, don’t be something I hate today.

My whole life I’ve had the tendency to talk a little too much and be a little too free with personal information. It was this flaw that caused me to reveal to my co-workers that there had been a day when I maintained a Dixie Chicks website that was of some reknown in the online country music world. They refer to this time period in my life as my “Stalker Days.”

The reason for this moniker is because it wasn’t *just* a Dixie Chicks site. It was actually a shrine to the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines. I don’t know why they say it was stalker website — so what if it’s affectionately titled “Natalie Maines, Will You Marry Me?”

That website eventually got published in Country Music Weekly, and was a big player in the Dixie Chicks web community. I had professional photographers send me their exclusive photos, allowing me to post them if I gave them a credit. That’s just how much clout I had in that tiny little world. There were even two spin-off sites inspired by my own for each of the other chicks — “Emily Robison, You Rock!” and “Martie Seidel, Will You Be My New Best Friend?”

I was told by more than one fan that the Chicks were interviewed on The Howie Mandell show and that there was mention of a website that had proposed marriage to Natalie. So I have it on faith that even Natalie herself was aware of my craziness. I’m sure bodyguards soon followed.

The stalker days don’t stop there unfortunately. I was also an afficionado of ZDTV at the time where a budding reporter named Erica Hill reported the tech news. She would meet up with Leo Laporte during his awesome show, Call for Help. My roommate at the time and I decided to erect a shrine to her at our simply titled “Erica Hill Fansite.”

Lightning struck twice with that one. Within a few weeks, her cohost brought our website up on live television and showed it to her. I don’t even recall what was said about the site, but they ultimately put our doctored pictures up on the air. That was exciting. I’m sure she hired personal bodyguards soon after.

In case you missed the internal links:

• Natalie Maines, Will You Marry Me?
• Erica Hill Fansite

And those were my stalker days. I hope you get a good laugh out of it. I miss the days when it was easy to make a name for yourself out on the Internet.

With a review of album sales related to Idol on the show last night, I wanted to revisit one of my older posts about last season that I wrote after Daughtry’s ouster:

… Basically, America, you’ve left American Idol with three crappy contestants who have good voices but no direction. They won’t make good artists, they won’t make good albums, and you will all abandon them when American Idol is over. Meanwhile, Chris [Daughtry] will be making contemporary albums that everyone will buy.

Damn I’m good.

I always hesitate before writing a post related to reality television. The reason for this is because 2/5 of my readership doesn’t care about shows such as American Idol and wishes the franchise would diaf. But what the hell — it’s the finale!

I have to admit that I found this season of American Idol to be pretty lackluster. I skipped more than one episode and didn’t feel like there was much to be excited about among the constestants. At least last year had Daughtry, and the year before that was heavenly with Carrie Underwood.

The only real highlights of the season include body parts: Haley’s legs and Sanjaya’s Hair.

Last night, however, as I forced myself to watch the finale I realized that although the final two this season might not have the charisma of previous winners, they did have the raw talent and wonder that the show should be about. Blake just seemed happy to be alive and Jordin couldn’t be more sincere if she tried.

No offense to her, but I’m glad Melinda got voted out. She was a veteran in the field and had a Charisma modifier of -4. The eventual winner, Jordin Sparks, is really the embodiment of everything Idol should stand for. It found a 17 year old girl with a beautiful smile and an unmarred view of life and made her dreams come true. That’s good television.

Congratulations, Jordin! You are perhaps one of the most deserving Idols that the show has ever produced.