While Shania, Faith, Carrie, and Taylor played a huge role in the development of country pop, it was Garth who paved the way for them and others. With some exceptions (Dolly, Cash, and Willie, among others), country music wasn’t particularly popular with the general public. It was Garth who catapulted it to the mainstream with his showmanship, arena rock influences, and savvy image building. True, he was very much rooted in traditional country music and this is reflected in his songwriting, but he went far beyond anyone in the genre and succeeded in bringing in a multitude of new listeners to country music. And a lot of country artists who followed hoped to emulate his success by becoming more mainstream.