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Country music, is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, blues, gospel music, hokum, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s. The term country music began to be used in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music was deemed to be degrading, and the term was widely embraced in the 1970s, while country and western has declined in use since that time.
In the Southwestern United States a different mix of ethnic groups from Mexico, the British Isles, Germany, and the Czech Republic created the music that became the Western music of the term Country Western.
Country music has produced two of the top selling solo artists of all time. Elvis Presley, "The Hillbilly Cat", appeared on the Louisiana Hayride for three years, went on to help define rock ‘n' roll, and became known as "The King." Garth Brooks, except for a short foray into non-country near the end of his recording career, recorded and performed country music and is one top selling solo artist.
Immigrants to the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of the Old World along with them for nearly 300 years. The Irish fiddle, the German derived dulcimer, the Italian mandolin, the Spanish guitar, and the African banjo were the most common musical instruments. The interactions among musicians from different ethnic groups produced music unique to this region of North America. Appalachian string bands of the early 20th century primarliy consisted of the fiddle, guitar, and banjo. This early country music along with early recorded country music is often referred to as Old-time music.
Columbia Records began issuing records with "hillbilly" music (series 15000D "Old Familiar Tunes") as early as 1924. A year earlier on June 14, 1923 Fiddlin' John Carson recorded "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" for Okeh Records. Vernon Dalhart was the first country singer to have a nationwide hit in May of that same year with "The Wreck of Old '97". Other important early recording artists were Riley Puckett, Don Richardson, Fiddlin' John Carson, Al Hopkins, Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers and The Skillet Lickers. The steel guitar entered country music as early as 1922, when Jimmie Tarlton met famed Hawaiian guitarist Frank Ferera on the West Coast.
Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family are widely considered to be the founders of country music, and their songs were first captured at a historic recording session in Bristol, Tennessee/Bristol, Virginia on August 1, 1927, where Ralph Peer was the talent scout and sound recordist.
Rodgers fused hillbilly country, gospel, jazz, blues, pop, cowboy, and folk; and many of his best songs were his compositions, including "Blue Yodel" (Victor 21142 ), which sold over a million records and established Rodgers as the premier singer of early country music.
Beginning in 1927, and for the next 17 years the Carters recorded some 300 old-time ballads, traditional tunes, country songs, and Gospel hymns, all representative of America's southeastern folklore and heritage.
During the 1930s and 1940s Cowboy songs, or "Western music", which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Some of the popular singing cowboys from the era were, Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers, and Roy Rogers.
Another "country" musician from the Lower Great Plains had become very popular as the leader of a "hot string band", and who also appeared in Hollywood Westerns was Bob Wills. His mix of "country" and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, would become known as Western Swing. Spade Cooley and Tex Williams also had very popluar bands and appeared in films. At the height of its popularity, Western Swing rivaled the popularity of other big band jazz.
Country musicians began playing boogie in 1939, shortly after it had been played at Carnegie Hall, when Johnny Barfield recorded "Boogie Woogie". The trickle of what was initially called Hillbilly Boogie, or Okie Boogie (later to be renamed Country Boogie), became a flood beginning around late 1945. One notable country boogie from this period was the Delmore Brothers' "Freight Train Boogie", considered to be part of the combined evolution of country music and blues towards rockabilly. In 1948 Arthur Smith achieved Top 10 US country chart success with his MGM Records recordings of "Guitar Boogie" and "Banjo Boogie", with the former crossing over to the US pop charts. The Hillbilly Boogie period lasted into the 1950s, and remains as one of many subgenres of country into the 21st century.
Perhaps no other style of country music has had a greater influence on today's artists than the style known as Honky Tonk. Honky Tonk music embodied the spirit of dancing and drinking, and of loving and then losing the one you love. Its greatest practitioners owe their singing style to Jimmie Rodgers and much of the music to the steel guitar and drums of Bob Wills and Western Swing .
Jimmie Rodgers is a major foundation stone in the structure of country music, but the most influential artist who was influenced by Rogers is undoubtedly Hank Williams, Sr. During the years 1949 through 1953, Williams had 7 songs in Billboard's annual Top 5 Country singles, and of the 66 songs recorded under his own name, an astonishing 37 were hits. His songs have been not only been covered by many country artists, they have also been recorded by jazz, pop, and rhythm and blues. Examples of those who reintrepreted his songs are: Tony Bennett (1951), Bob Dylan, jazz diva Norah Jones, crooner Perry Como, R&B star Dinah Washington, and British punk band, The The. Songs such as "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" have long been pop standards.
Williams had two personas: as Hank Williams he was a singer-songwriter and entertainer; as Luke the Drifter, he was a songwriting crusader. The complexity of his character was reflected in the introspective songs he wrote about heartbreak, happiness and love such as I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry and Your Cheating Heart; and more upbeat numbers about Cajun life ("Jambalaya") or cigar store Indians ("Kaw-Liga").
By the late 1940's, Nashville began to slowly integrate the popular big band jazz and swing sounds of top 40 radio with the honky tonk storytelling of country pioneers. Between 1947 and 1949, country crooner Eddy Arnold placed a total of 8 songs in the top 10.
Beginning in the mid 50's, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the "Nashville Sound" turned country music into a multimillion-dollar industry centered on Nashville, Tennessee. Under the direction of producers such as Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, and later Billy Sherrill, the "Nashville sound" brought country music to a diverse audience and helped revive country as it emerged from a commercially fallow period. This sound was notable for borrowing from 1950s pop stylings: a prominent and 'smooth' vocal, backed by a string section and vocal chorus. Instrumental soloing was de-emphasised in favor of trademark 'licks'. Leading artists in this genre included Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and later Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich. The "slip note" piano style of session musician Floyd Cramer was an important component of this style.
1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music. The number 2, 3, and 4 songs on Billboard's charts for that year are: Elvis Presley "Heartbreak Hotel", Johnny Cash "I Walk the Line", and Carl Perkins "Blue Suede Shoes". Cash and Presley would place songs in the top 5 in 1958 with #3 Guess Things Happen That Way/Come In, Stranger by Cash, and #5 by Presley Don't/I Beg Of You.
Located 112 miles (180 km) north west of Los Angeles, Bakersfield, California gave rise to the one of the next genres of country music. The Bakersfield Sound grew out of hardcore honky tonk, adding elements of Western swing. One time West Coast residents Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell influenced the leading proponents of this sound. The Bakersfield Sound relied on electric instruments and amplification more than other subgenres of country, giving the music hard, driving, edgy flavor.
By 1966 the sharp, Telecaster driven, no-frills, music with an unadorned drive was known as the Bakersfield Sound . The leading practitioners of this style were Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins, and Wynn Stewart, each of whom had his own style.
In 1962 Ray Charles surprised the pop world by turning his attention to country & western music, topping the charts and rating # 3 for the year on BillBoard's pop chart with the "I Can't Stop Loving You" single, and recording the hugely popular album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.
Outlaw Country is derived from the traditional and Honky tonk sounds of the late 50's and 60's, including Ray Price (whose band, the "Cherokee Cowboys", included Willie Nelson and Roger Miller) and mixed with the anger of an alienated subculture of the nation during the period, Outlaw Country revolutionized the genre of Country music.
"The term "Outlaw Country" is traditionally associated with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Billy Joe Shaver, and was encapsulated in the 1976 record Wanted: The Outlaws!.
The late 1960's in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres. In the aftermath of the British Invasion, many desired a return to the "old values" of Rock n' Roll. At the same time there was a lack of enthusiasm in the Country sector for Nashville produced music. What resulted was a crossbred genre known as Country Rock.
Early innovators in this new style of music included Rock n' Roll icon band The Byrds (while Gram Parsons was the front man) and its spin-off The Flying Burrito Brothers, Commander Cody, and The Eagles.
Country Pop or soft pop, with roots in both the countrypolitan sound and in soft rock, is a subgenre of country music that first emerged in the 1970s. Although the term first referred to country music songs and artists that crossed over to top 40 radio, country pop acts are now more likely to cross over to adult contemporary.
Country pop found its first widespread acceptance during the 1970s. It started with Pop music singers, like Glen Campbell, John Denver, Olivia Newton-John, and Anne Murray having hits on the Country charts. Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy" was among one of the biggest crossover hits in Country music history. These Pop-oriented singers thought that they could gain higher record sales and a larger audience if they crossed over into the Country world.
A new generation of "new traditionalists" -- George Strait, Ricky Skaggs, the Judds, Randy Travis, and Ricky Van Shelton -- brought country out of its doldrums by reminding young audiences what made the music great in the first place.
In the mid-1980s Ricky Skaggs, a picking prodigy who took his inspiration from Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley (Skaggs was a Clinch Mountain Boy as a teen), began making music that he believed brought country back to its roots. With Skaggs's release of "Waitin' for the Sun to Shine" in 1981, he reached the top of the country charts, a place he frequently stayed during most of the 80's, and made a statement that "true country music" was back.
The two strands of country music have continued to develop since 1990s. The Jimmie Rodgers influence can be seen in a pronounced "working man" image promoted by singers like Brooks & Dunn and Garth Brooks. On the Carter Family side, singers like Iris DeMent and Nanci Griffith have written on more traditional "folk" themes, albeit with a contemporary point of view.
In the 1990s a new form of country music emerged, called by some alternative country, neotraditional, or "insurgent country." Performed by generally younger musicians and inspired by traditional country performers and the country reactionaries, it shunned the Nashville-dominated sound of mainstream country.
Country music today is the largest selling music genre, with modern artists such as Keith Urban combining country, pop and rock for a mass audience, from Nashville, still recognized as the home of Country Music.
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music