History Music / BrooksAndDunn

In 2009, Kix and Ronnie announced that they would be retiring as Brooks & Dunn. This retirement was led off by a comprehensive ''#1s... and Then Some'' compilation, which included two new low-charting singles. Afterward, both members began solo careers on Arista. Dunn released his self-titled album in 2011 and charted in the Top 10 with "Bleed Red", but abruptly left the label in 2012. Kix's ''New to This Town'' followed later in 2012.

* FollowTheLeader: Once Brooks & Dunn got hot, the market was suddenly flooded with singer-songwriter duos who were paired willy-nilly by record execs. None of them went anywhere. For all of the 1990s, Brooks & Dunn was untouchable in the Duo category; if any country music award had "Duo" in the name, it invariably went to them (except in 2000 when Montgomery Gentry, who were brand-new at the time, got a Duo of the Year award). Even the few duos that weren't manufactured by record execs (see above) never seemed to catch on — literally no other duo had so much as a Top 5 hit for most of Brooks & Dunn's tenure, so absolutely no one was a threat until Music/{{Sugarland}} lost its third member in 2005 and suddenly caught momentum.

-->--Creator/JeffFoxworthy

A long-lasting CountryMusic duo composed of Leon Eric "Kix" Brooks and Ronald Gene "Ronnie" Dunn, Brooks and Dunn is arguably ''the'' definitive country music duo. After several years as [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal struggling solo singer-songwriters]], the two were paired at the suggestion of Arista Records executive Tim [=DuBois=]. And all was good. Their first album, ''Brand New Man'', launched four consecutive #1 hits with its first four singles, and went on to sell five million copies. Those first four songs are still considered among the duo's {{Signature Song}}s, most notably "Boot Scootin' Boogie", which sparked a renewed interest in line dancing.

* CanonDiscontinuity: None of the singles from ''Tight Rope'', widely considered their weakest album, appeared on their second GreatestHitsAlbum in 2004. This means that the album completely ignores two Top 20 hits and a Top 5, in favor of including "South of Santa Fe", the last single from the album before ''Tight Rope''… which happened to be B & D's only single ''not to even hit Top 40''. This is very likely a JustifiedTrope, as Kix revealed in 2015 that they were seriously considering a breakup after ''Tight Rope'' bombed, because they just felt they had run their course — until the head of their label recommended to them a little song called "Ain't Nothing 'bout You"…

* CanonDiscontinuity: None of the singles from ''Tight Rope'', widely considered their weakest album, appeared on their second GreatestHitsAlbum in 2004. This means that the album completely ignores two Top 20 hits and a Top 5, in favor of including "South of Santa Fe", the last single from the album before ''Tight Rope''… which happened to be B & D's only single ''not to even hit Top 40''.

-->--JeffFoxworthy

* FollowTheLeader: Once Brooks & Dunn got hot, the market was suddenly flooded with singer-songwriter duos who were paired willy-nilly by record execs. None of them went anywhere.
* ForegoneConclusion: For all of the 1990s, Brooks & Dunn was untouchable in the Duo category; if any country music award had "Duo" in the name, it invariably went to them (except in 2000 when Montgomery Gentry got Duo of the Year instead). Even the few duos that weren't manufactured by record execs (see above) never seemed to catch on — literally no other duo had so much as a Top 5 hit for most of Brooks & Dunn's tenure, so absolutely no one was a threat until {{Sugarland}} lost its third member in 2005 and suddenly caught momentum.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Steers & Stripes'' and ''Red Dirt Road'' were both critically acclaimed for their more muscular, energetic production. Over time, though, the sound started to slip back to the slick, commercial sound of the duo's mid-nineties albums.
* NiceHat: Kix frequently wears a cowboy hat.

* RecordProducer: The failure of ''Tight Rope'' could be attributed to Don Cook's production getting a little tired (Byron Gallimore, with whom the duo had never worked before, did some production as well). Starting with their critically-acclaimed comeback ''Steers & Stripes'' in 2001, they began working with Mark Wright, so maybe such a change was in order. They switched again to Tony Brown, best known for his work with GeorgeStrait, on their last two albums.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Out of 50 singles, Kix got lead on six: "Lost and Found", "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)", "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone", "Mama Don't Get Dressed Up for Nothing", "Why Would I Say Goodbye" and "South of Santa Fe". The last of these peaked at #41 and was supposedly pulled because program directors didn't want another Kix song.

* TruckDriversGearChange: Present in the re-recorded version of "Cowgirls Don't Cry" that features a guest vocal from RebaMcEntire. The song comes to a dead stop for a few seconds and jumps up a ''fifth'' for the end; even worse, the music just sounds like it was artificially pitched up on this version. Neither the key change nor the dead stop are present on the original, Brooks & Dunn-only version.

* RealLifeRelative: Dunn's daughter appears in the video for "Cowgirls Don't Cry" riding her Pony of the Americas, Bunny.

In 2009, Kix and Ronnie announced that they would be retiring as Brooks & Dunn. This retirement was led off by a comprehensive ''#1s... and Then Some'' compilation, which included two new low-charting singles. Afterward, both members began solo careers on Arista. Dunn released his self-titled album in 2011 and charted in the Top 10 with "Bleed Red", but abruptly left the label in 2012. Ronnie's ''New to This Town'' followed later in 2012.

* LesserStar: Kix Brooks, and how. He sang lead on only ''six'' of the duo's 50 singles. The last single on which he sang lead, "South of Santa Fe" — back in ''1999'' — was supposedly withdrawn as a single because radio programmers were saying that they didn't want another Kix song. On the 44 other songs, his backing vocals are often near-inaudible (or in some cases, such as "Believe", nonexistant). Pretty much the only thing that saved Kix from being dead weight was the fact that he was the comparatively more [[RedOniBlueOni energetic and outgoing performer]] of the two. However, the duo split lead vocals on their albums.
** Also present among their songwriting. Since the mid-1990s, they've recorded about 2/3 outside material and 1/3 co-writes. Ronnie largely wrote with one set of songwriters (including their bassist and former [=McBride=] & the Ride member Terry [=McBride=]), and Kix with another; even in their earliest days, they rarely wrote together.

* LesserStar: Kix Brooks, and how. He sang lead on only ''six'' of the duo's 50 singles. The last single on which he sang lead, "South of Santa Fe" — back in ''1999'' — was supposedly withdrawn as a single because radio programmers were saying that they didn't want another Kix song. On the 44 other songs, his backing vocals are often near-inaudible (or in some cases, such as "Believe", nonexistant). Pretty much the only thing that saved Kix from being dead weight was the fact that he was the comparatively more [[RedOniBlueOni energetic and outgoing performer]] of the two.

* SignatureSong: "Neon Moon", "Boot Scootin' Boogie", "My Maria", "Ain't Nothing 'bout You", "Only in America", "Red Dirt Road", "Play Something Country", "Believe". Take your pick.

Only two years later, Brooks & Dunn got back on track, launching that year with "Ain't Nothing 'bout You", the biggest hit of the duo's career ''and'' the biggest country single of 2001. The hits kept on coming for the next few years, but following a second Greatest Hits album, they started to fade away again. ''Hillbilly Deluxe'' did account for the duo's last #1 hit and the signature song "Believe", but ''Cowboy Town'' saw all of its singles fall quickly from the charts (except for the last-gasp "Cowgirls Don't Cry") and that album failed to even go gold. Kix also found work as a radio host, succeeding Bob Kingsley on the countdown show ''Radio/AmericanCountryCountdown''.

* FakeOutFadeOut: Occurs on "Indian Summer." It's a slow, wistful song about a schoolgirl who was impressed by a football player's skillful performance at a hometown game, and ended up sleeping with him, only to have her life ruined when he bragged about it to his friends afterwards. This is, of course, fatal to one's reputation in a small town, and she ended up having to drop out and move across the country to start over. At the end, the singer regretfully admits that he was the Jerk Jock and now, looking back on it, he wonders if things might have been different had he acted differently. Fade out... a perfect place to end. And then it jumps back in with a strong guitar slide and one last exultant rehash of the chorus, about how cool the whole experience was.
* FollowTheLeader: Once Brooks & Dunn got hot, the market was suddenly flooded with singer-songwriter duos who were paired willy-nilly by record execs. For all of the 1990s, it was a ForegoneConclusion that any award with "duo" in the name would automatically go to B & D. No duo posed a serious threat to Brooks & Dunn's fortunes until {{Sugarland}} got reduced to a duo and suddenly started having much more success.

In 2009, Kix and Ronnie announced that they would be retiring as Brooks & Dunn. This retirement was led off by a comprehensive ''#1s... and Then Some'' compilation, which included two new low-charting singles. Afterward, both members began solo careers on Arista, with Ronnie's debut album producing a Top 10 hit in "Bleed Red".

* PornStache: Kix.

In 2009, Kix and Ronnie announced that they would be retiring as Brooks & Dunn. This retirement was led off by a comprehensive ''#1s... and Then Some'' compilation, which included two new low-charting singles. Afterward, Ronnie began a solo career with the single "Bleed Red", and contributed a song to the ''CountryStrong'' soundtrack.

* {{Garfunkel}}: Kix Brooks. He has sung lead on only ''six'' of the duo's 50 singles. The last single on which he sang lead, "South of Santa Fe" — back in ''1999'' — was supposedly withdrawn as a single because radio programmers were saying that they didn't want another Kix song. On the 44 other songs, his backing vocals are barely even audible (or in some cases, such as "Believe", nonexistant). Pretty much the only thing that saved Kix from being dead weight was the fact that he was the comparatively more energetic and outgoing performer of the two.
** Also present among their songwriting. Since the mid-1990s, they've recorded about 2/3 outside material and 1/3 co-writes. Ronnie largely wrote with one set of songwriters (including their bassist and former [=McBride=] & the Ride member Terry [=McBride=]), and Kix with another; even in their earliest days, they rarely wrote together.

Only two years later, Brooks & Dunn got back on track, launching that year with "Ain't Nothing 'bout You", the biggest hit of the duo's career ''and'' the biggest country single of 2001. The hits kept on coming for the next few years, but following a second Greatest Hits album, they started to fade away again. ''Hillbilly Deluxe'' did account for the duo's last #1 hit and the signature song "Believe", but ''Cowboy Town'' saw all of its singles fall quickly from the charts (except for the last-gasp "Cowgirls Don't Cry") and that album failed to even go gold. Kix also found work as a radio host, succeeding Bob Kingsley on the countdown show ''American Country Countdown''.

* FollowTheLeader: Once Brooks & Dunn got hot, the market was suddenly flooded with singer-songwriter duos who were paired willy-nilly by record execs. For all of the 1990s, it was a ForegoneConclusion that any award with "duo" in the name would automatically go to B & D. No duo posed a serious threat to Brooks & Dunn's fortunes until {{Sugarland}} got reduced to a duo and suddenly started having much more success.

* TheRedStapler: "Boot Scootin' Boogie", a song about line-dancing, sparked a renewed interest in line-dancing that lasted well into the late 1990s. The craze even inspired another song which lampshaded the sudden increase — Shenandoah's "If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too)", which was inspired by a comment that one of the writers made after seeing a commercial for line-dancing lessons.