Shania Twain

In the mid-1990s, Shania Twain put the whammy on the country music industry with a string of chart-busting hits -- which sounded more like stadium rock than Country Pop -- and a brazenly sexy image. Much to the chagrin of more traditional-minded critics, Twain broke sales records and paved the way for such stars as Jo Dee Messina and the Dixie Chicks. She remains a major figure on the scene, with a second CMA award-winning album and a reworking of her red hot image, which de-emphasizes sex appeal and focuses on female empowerment in a male-dominated industry. Retaining the loud guitars and anthemic quality of The Woman in Me (1997), Shania's more recent work still appeals to the crossover market she tore open, but she sometimes still makes concessions to the naysayers of yesterday with a stronger twang in her voice and more overtly countrified melodies.