Tim McGraw May 17, 2011

When Tim McGraw debuted in the early '90s, few would have predicted that he would eventually take over Garth Brooks' position as the most popular male singer in country music. Yet that's exactly what he did, thanks to a string of multi-platinum albums, a high-profile marriage to fellow superstar Faith Hill, and Brooks' own inevitable decline. McGraw's sound epitomized the strain of commercial country that dominated his era: updated honky tonk and Southern-fried country-rock on the up-tempo tunes, well-polished, adult contemporary-tinged pop on the ballads. By the late '90s, he was not only a superstar among country fans, but a mainstream celebrity with a large female following.