Country music exploded in the ’90s. Early in the decade, stars such as Brooks & Dunn and Shania Twain had people line-dancing to their crisp, tight beats. By the end of it, a new generation of singers were selling out stadiums and topping the pop charts—feats almost unheard of even a few years earlier. Of course, the sound of country music grew alongside its audience. With female performers like Twain, The Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill often in the lead, artists energised their records with the flashy guitar sounds and big production tricks learned from classic rock, hair metal and Top 40 pop without ever straying far from their country roots. Then again, this was also the decade when a constellation of young acts decided that they ought to stick even closer to those roots, establishing alt-country and setting the stage for the growth of Americana.