By Kristin M. Hall
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) --Country music superstar Garth Brooks has more than just friends in low places. The Library of Congress said Wednesday the Grammy winner will receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in March 2020.
Previous recipients include Tony Bennett, Paul Simon, Carole King and Willie Nelson.
Brooks is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. His hits include “Friends in Low Places,” “The Thunder Rolls” and “The Dance.”
At 57, he’ll be the youngest recipient of the Gershwin Prize. He will be honored with an all-star tribute concert in Washington, D.C., that will air on PBS stations in spring 2020.
“An award is only as good as the names on it,” Brooks said in a statement. “First off, for any musician, the name Gershwin says it all. Add to Ira’s and George’s names the names of the past recipients and you have an award of the highest honor. I am truly humbled.”
Since his debut in 1989, Brooks has become a top-selling and touring musical force, bringing his brand of high energy and emotional country music to stadiums and arenas.
He is the best-selling solo artist in the United States with more than 148 million in album sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, and is second only in total U.S. sales to The Beatles.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Brooks combined his love of classic country music and cowboy songs with production typically seen in rock and pop acts. Seven of his albums have sold more than 10 million copies in the United States alone, according to the RIAA.
In the early 2000s, he took a break from recording and touring to spend more time with his family. Brooks returned to major touring and recording in 2014 and remains one of country’s most popular touring acts. He is married to fellow country star Trisha Yearwood.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More