Artist Daughtry

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Daughtry

It took the American Idol machine a couple seasons to realize that Americans like many different genres of, er, accessible music. The man that schooled them was Chris Daughtry, he of the shiny head and Kroeger-esque rumble of a voice. Before David Cook, before Lee DeWyze, before Adam Lambert and his occasional forays into campy rock slither, Daughtry brought white-dude music to the Idol stage. His surprise fourth-place finish did nothing to dampen his career prospects—when it comes to Idol alums, he’s number three in terms of overall record sales, trailing only Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Updated 05/04/2011