Country Music

Grove Music Online
Country music
Jocelyn R. Neal
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2224075
Published in print: 26 November 2013
Published online: 10 July 2012
The origins of country music are the folk music of mostly white,
working-class Americans, who blended popular songs, Irish and
Celtic fiddle tunes, traditional ballads, and cowboy songs, along with
African American blues and various musical traditions from
European immigrant communities. In the 1920s, the recording
industry and newly emerging radio industry transformed their music
into a commercial genre known primarily as “hillbilly,” along with
descriptors such as “old-time,” “old familiar tunes,” and “hill and
range” music. Over the subsequent century, country music has
evolved into a vibrant commercial genre that maintains allegiance to
concepts of tradition and rusticity, even as the music continues to
reflect the modernization and urbanization of its audience.
Its primary themes include an imagined rural idealism, a celebration

of working-class identity, an iconography drawn from the traditions
of the American cowboy, and a predominantly Southern, white,
Christian, socially conservative and patriotic philosophy.
Nonetheless, each of those themes has been challenged within
country music, which has spread far beyond the American South and
features prominent African American artists, Hispanic audiences,
and politically diverse viewpoints expressed in song lyrics. Musical
signifiers of the genre include the traditional string-band (especially
fiddle, acoustic guitar, and banjo) and steel guitar. Vocal
performances are often marked by Southern or Texan accents and
twang, which is a general description of timbre that is linked to
nasal singing, and the songwriting emphasizes linear storytelling
and clear narratives. At various times, country music has also
intersected with other popular genres, most notably blues, swing,
Southern gospel, rock ‘n’ roll, Southern rock, and mainstream pop,
while also occasionally incorporating elements from disco,
mainstream pop, and hip hop.
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Country music stars celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Grand Ole
Opry, Nashville, Tenn., 1985.
AP Photo
The contemporary country music industry is centered in Nashville,

Tennessee, although it has also had important geographic centers in
Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Austin. The industry consists of a
complex infrastructure of songwriting communities, performers,
music publishing firms, record labels, and performance venues.
Those venues include local honky-tonks and dance halls, community
gatherings, county fairs, music festivals, and specialized concert
series such as the Grand Ole Opry, along with outlets through
television programming, radio, and the internet. Two national trade
organizations, the Country Music Association and the Academy of
Country Music, actively promote the genre and sponsor awards
shows that provide an annual benchmark for commercial,
mainstream developments in country music. The Country Music
Foundation manages the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum,
established in 1961, as well as the archival repository and research-
oriented facility for the genre. A host of trade organizations, such as
the International Bluegrass Music Association and the Western
Music Association, support individual traditions and segments within
country music.
Beyond its commercial face, country music exists across a broad

continuum that ranges from the professional entertainer to amateur
music-making within local folk traditions. The music heard on the
radio and at major stadium concerts remains symbolically connected
to those traditions of family singing and community music-making
from which it derives. The fan base has also expanded far beyond its
historical origins. Today, a far more diverse audience supports
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country music as a means of asserting their connections to the value
system, traditional identity, and cultural themes that are represented
in the genre.
1. History and musical evolution in the

United States
Since the earliest commercial recordings of country music in the

1920s, its musical substance has changed dramatically to
incorporate many styles and performance traditions. The music’s
topics and themes also reflect the social and cultural developments
of the past century, while the practices within the music industry
have evolved to incorporate new technologies.
(i) Origins and development in the 1920s
The roots of country music are found in diverse musical traditions.

Source material included folk ballads and fiddle tunes from the
British Isles, which by the late nineteenth century had developed
into their own forms in the mountains of Appalachia. Minstrelsy and
traveling medicine shows distributed other folk songs, both
sentimental and comedic, across the South. Popular tunes composed
for Vaudeville made their way into local repertories. African
American blues appeared in the repertories of both white and black
musicians. Gospel hymns, especially those that were composed or
made popular by the Revival movements of the late nineteenth
century, were included. The practice of writing topical ballads to
commemorate local events, especially those that were tragic or
particularly violent, generated additional repertory. The first
generations of country musicians also borrowed freely from work
songs such as those sung by cowboys in the Southwest and from
other popular genres such as jazz.
Prior to the first recordings of country music, most performers were

amateur musicians who participated in family, church, and
community music-making. Only a few, including Fiddlin’ John Carson
in Georgia, Uncle Dave Macon in Tennessee, and various string
bands who entertained a local events and dances, built a substantial
regional reputations and supported themselves by performing.
During the first two decades of the twentieth century, folklorists,

musicologists, and collectors began gathering and publishing songs.
John Lomax’s Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads (1910) and
Cecil Sharp’s collections of Appalachian folk songs (1917), for
instance, were part of a growing trend that increased public
awareness of working-class, rural American’s musical traditions.
The catalyst that brought together these disparate folk traditions

into the codifiable genre of country music was technology. Radio
stations began operating in the early 1920s, and as more sprang up,
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record companies suffered a slight decline in sales. The combination
of radio stations that needed live performers to fill their airtime and
record companies who were eager to increase sales generated new
opportunities for rural musicians to become professional
entertainers.
The earliest recordings that scholars identify as country music

occurred in the summer of 1922, when fiddlers Eck Robertson and
Henry Gilliland traveled to New York City and auditioned for Victor
Records. Although the executives were unsure what commercial
potential this music held, they recorded ten songs, including “Sallie
Goodin’.” In 1923, a local furniture store salesman in Atlanta
convinced the OKeh record company to record Fiddlin’ John Carson.
Adopting a new approach, the record executives sent recording
engineers to Atlanta rather than bring the performers to New York.
This practice of field recordings spearheaded development in
country music because it put record producers in direct contact with
local musicians.
During those same years, radio stations sponsored by local

businesses began broadcasting in cities such as Atlanta (WSB),
Charlotte (WBT), Fort Worth (WBAP), Chicago (WLS), and, in 1925,
Nashville (WSM). These stations reached rural populations who liked
listening to string bands, comedy entertainers, folk singers, fiddlers,
and other performers whose musical styles matched what they heard
regularly in their communities. Several stations hosted variety shows
that imitated live, rural community entertainment. These barn
dances, such as Chicago’s National Barn Dance and Nashville’s
Grand Ole Opry, provided steady employment and publicity for local
musicians, who began to move from the ranks of amateurs into new
roles as professional musicians. The barn dances also contributed
substantially to the rustic image of country music. Radio executives
such as George D. Hay encouraged performers to adopt costumes
and on-air personalities that exaggerated backwoods and uncultured
traits. The result was effective branding for the music, but it also
added to a lasting association between country music and hillbilly
stereotypes.
In the mid-1920s, many record labels catalogued rural, folk-derived

performances by white musicians as “hillbilly,” a category that
included a range of musical styles. (See hillbilly music) Solo fiddlers
and banjo pickers were popular, but singers earned most of the
attention. Many of them sang in a loud, nasal, chest-voice, both
because of regional traditions and because the approach worked
well with the limited mechanical recording devices of the era. The
recording format of 78-rpm records favored three-minute songs,
thereby establishing a convention that still persists. Cowboy singers
such as Carl T. Sprague (“When the Work’s All Done this Fall”), folk-
song collectors such as Bradley Kincaid, ballad singers such as
Henry Whitter, and white blues singers such as Frank Hutchison
became popular. String bands who played both traditional folk tunes
and newly composed tunes, such as Charlie Poole and the North
Carolina Ramblers and Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, brought
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the sounds of local Saturday-night barn dances onto records. Family
ensembles steeped in gospel music such as Ernest Stoneman and his
Dixie Mountaineers performed in a style typically heard in
Appalachian churches.
In the same era, professionally trained entertainers who were not

part of the rural, working-class folk tradition recorded many of the
same songs while imitating the folk styles. Singers such as Vernon
Dalhart (“The Prisoner’s Song”) became extremely popular. These
urban recordings, which the audiences embraced, complicated the
relationship between country music and rural, working-class identity.
A significant set of recordings in 1927 transformed the emergent

country music genre into a national phenomenon. That summer,
record executive and music publisher ralph s. Peer set up field
recording sessions in Bristol, TN/VA for Victor Records, during
which the Carter Family, the and Jimmie Rodgers both made their
first recordings. Their subsequent commercial success transformed
country music into a major genre of popular music. The Carter
Family (“Keep on the Sunny Side”) came to represent the traditions
of family groups, singing in harmony, and Appalachian folk music.
Jimmie Rodgers (“Blue Yodel”) personified the character of a hard-
living rounder who sang both sentimental and bawdy popular songs
and blues tunes. Together, the Carters and Rodgers established two
of the core archetypes around which country music developed.
During those first years of commercial recordings and radio

broadcasts, the infrastructure of the country industry also took
shape. Six major record labels competed for artists during the
1920s, often signing new acts based on what their competition had
found was popular. The distribution of royalties favored songwriters
and publishers over performers, which in turn became an economic
engine driving new songwriting. These artists were often ill-
prepared to negotiate the business aspects of their new careers and
never reaped full financial benefits from their work. In many
instances, record executives, publishers, and producers were
dismissive of the music they were recording. Nonetheless, by the
end of the 1920s, country music had developed into a substantial
musical genre whose fan base was of growing interest to advertisers.
(ii) 1930s-40s: National expansion
During the 1930s and 40s, country music fostered increased

professionalism among its performers, reached a national audience,
and evolved with new musical styles and images. Although the Great
Depression dampened record sales, it boosted interest in radio
shows, which gave both employment opportunities and exposure to
the next generation of country singers. Record labels also responded
to economic conditions by introducing cheaper subsidiaries such as
RCA Victor’s Bluebird label, many of which focused on country
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music. By the mid-1930s, record sales began to pick up, and new
labels such as Decca adopted country music as area of
specialization.
The proliferation of barn dances, with additions such as the Renfro

Valley Barn Dance (Cincinnati) and the WWVA Jamboree (Wheeling,
WV) resulted in more performance opportunities, especially for small
ensembles and for duets, commonly known as Brother Acts. Groups
such as the Delmore Brothers and the Callahan Brothers sang close
harmony and accompanied themselves on both popular songs and
blues, while some duets such as the Blue Sky Boys specialized in
gospel and sentimental songs. String bands such as the Coon Creek
Girls continued more traditional styles of instrumental performance.
Women earned increasing recognition as stars on barn dance
programs, including Linda Parker (as “Sunbonnet Sue”), Lulu Belle
Wiseman (with duet partner Scotty Wiseman), and Sarie & Sally. The
biggest solo stars, including Roy Acuff (“The Precious Jewel”) and
Red Foley, combined sentimental, nostalgic songs with a balance of
gospel hymns, novelty entertainment, and pop tunes.
New styles made inroads into country music, most notably via the
singing cowboys featured in Hollywood’s Western films. (See
Cowboy, Singing.) Stars such as Gene Autry (“Back in the Saddle
Again”), Roy Rogers, and Tex Ritter played noble, independent
cowboy heroes in the formulaic films, which incorporated songs
written to evoke traditional cowboy songs. Songwriters working in
Los Angeles such as Bob Nolan found a growing market in
composing western-themed songs for movies and for radio
broadcasts. Vocal groups including the Sons of the Pioneers (which
included both Bob Nolan and, for a brief period, Roy Rogers)
specialized in close-harmony performances of cowboy songs,
although their musical style also incorporated aspects of pop and
jazz. Women, including Dale Evans and Patsy Montana, also
appeared in the Western films and earned recognition as recording
artists. Through their popularity, the singing cowboys expanded the
sounds of country music far beyond its hillbilly roots. They also
prompted the adoption of the cowboy as the primary image for
country music. For mainstream audiences, this image was far more
respectable than the hillbilly stereotype and represented
independence, self-reliance, and an element of heroism that
appealed to fans during the 1930s.
In Texas and Oklahoma, string bands blended traditional fiddle tunes

with popular jazz dance tunes to create Western swing. By 1935,
bands such as Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and Milton Brown
and his Musical Brownies had introduced piano, drums, horns, and
electrified steel guitar into their ensembles. Their music was
cultivated in the rowdy West Texas dance halls where a swing beat
and loud rhythm sections served practical purposes for dancing.
Western swing spread throughout the Southwest, with a large fan
base in California. By World War II, Bob Wills, Spade Cooley, and Tex
Williams all fronted large bands that shared much in common with
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the big-band jazz ensembles of the day, differentiated mainly by their
prominent fiddle players and lyrics that commonly invoked
Southwestern and Western themes (“New San Antonio Rose”).
During WWII, soldiers from rural areas who were stationed abroad
introduced country music to colleagues from other backgrounds. The
Armed Forces Radio Network regularly featured country music,
which came to represent ideas of home and patriotism. Domestically,
the defense industry sparked massive internal migration as
Southerners in particular moved to industrial cities, taking their
music with them as both nostalgic reminiscence and a welcome form
of entertainment in their new environments. Cities such as Los
Angeles soon housed a thriving country music scene with numerous
radio shows and dance halls that employed live bands, sometimes
seven nights a week.
After WWII, the demographics of the country music audience shifted

in terms of geographic location, education, and economic class.
Returning soldiers took advantage of the GI Bill and economic
growth to adopt a middle-class lifestyle, yet they retained their
affection for country music. Similarly, the industrial migration
continued, moving even more people away from their traditional
communities and into urban environments and supporting the
growth of country music in those settings. These developments
fostered stylistic changes in the music.
Bluegrass music developed in the years after World War II as a

modernization of older string band traditions. In 1945, mandolin
player Bill Monroe hired Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to play with
his Blue Grass Boys. The band blended high lonesome singing with
Scruggs’s syncopated banjo playing and intense rhythmic energy.
Their repertory included gospel songs, traditional string band music,
and sentimental ballads, but their fast, instrumental
“breakdowns” (“Bluegrass Breakdown”) that showcased virtuosic
musicianship became bluegrass’s calling card. Flatt and Scruggs,
Jim & Jesse, Ralph and Stanley Carter, and the Stanley Brothers all
earned recognition as bluegrass bands, which thrived not only in
traditional country venues but also among urban audiences in places
such as Washington D.C. Within a few years, the folk revival
movement had adopted bluegrass as part of its soundscape.
In Texan dance halls, the large western swing bands gave way to
Honky-tonk, a musical style that also was designed for dancing and
drinking but that reflected the philosophic duality grounded in
Saturday-night revelry and Sunday-morning preaching. Ernest Tubb,
Floyd Tillman, Lefty Frizzell, and Webb Pierce all cultivated this
style, which combined fiddle and steel guitar with electric lead
guitar, rhythm guitar, upright bass, and plaintive, nasal singing. The
aesthetic of honky-tonk was very different from the family-centered,
folk traditions of the barn dance music and instead reflected the
topical interests and concerns of a large population of young people
displaced from their traditional roots by employment opportunities,
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who gathered in the honky-tonks for camaraderie and
entertainment. Lost love, cheatin’, and the hard knocks of life
became common lyrical themes.
The biggest star of honky-tonk was Hank Williams (“Your Cheatin’

Heart”), whose self-penned songs invoked his personal experiences.
Williams’s tumultuous biography, including a broken marriage,
alcoholism, and lifelong physical pain, became synonymous with
honky-tonk music. His fame was sealed by his untimely death at age
twenty-nine in the back seat of a Cadillac, a story that became the
symbolic legacy of honky-tonk.
Cajun music and culture, cultivated in the French-speaking portions

of Louisiana settled by the Acadians, made significant inroads into
country music during the 1940s. In 1928 when record companies
were actively seeking new vernacular musical styles, Columbia made
several recordings in New Orleans of traditional Cajun musicians Joe
Falcon, Cleoma [Breaux] Falcon, and Leon Meche. In the subsequent
decade, a small number of Cajun musicians including Leo Soileau
continued to record for a small audience. That changed in the years
following WWII when western swing and honky-tonk musicians in
east Texas and Louisiana increasingly interacted with Cajun bands
working in the same region. In 1946, Cajun fiddler Harry Choates
recorded “Jole Blon,” which caught the attention of enough
independent radio DJs to turn it into a substantial hit. Several
country artists took an increasing interest in the music and recorded
their own versions of Cajun songs, which gradually became an
integral part of country. In 1948, KWKH in Shreveport, LA launched
the Louisiana Hayride, a barn dance radio program that further
fused Cajun traditions with country music. The Hayride’s staff
musicians were steeped in local Louisianan musical traditions, which
they transmitted to the country singers who performed on the show,
including Pierce, Williams (“Jambalaya”), and Elvis Presley.
Toward the end of the 1940s, Ernest Tubb and others artists led a
charge to increase the respectability of country and change the
terminology by which the music was known, replacing “hillbilly” with
new labels including “folk” and “country and western.” The country
music industry put down additional roots in Nashville when Fred
Rose and Roy Acuff opened the Acuff-Rose publishing firm in 1942,
while a proliferation of recording studios further enticed record
labels to the city. In the early 1940s, a combination of strikes within
the American Federation of Musicians and complicated negotiations
with performing rights organizations gave a huge commercial boost
to country music. By 1950, country music was a national,
burgeoning genre with stylistic diversity that served an increasingly
middle-class audience.
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(iii) 1950s-60s: Nashville sound and
reactions
Country music in the early 1950s centered on honky-tonk, western

swing, and bluegrass. Even after Hank Williams’s death in 1953, a
number of country singers continued to perform in a lively honky-
tonk style, including Hank Thompson, Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Kitty
Wells, and, on the West Coast, Rose Maddox, whose exuberant stage
presence and flamboyant costumes amplified her musical persona
even further.
A year after Hank Williams’s death, Elvis Presley turned his affection
for both rhythm & blues and honky-tonk music into Rockabilly,
characterized by energized bass playing, pulsating rhythm guitar,
and brazen electric guitar solos, all supporting vocal performances
that were sensual and highly expressive. Presley’s music was an
integral part of the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, a new, teen-oriented musical
genre that crossed racial and class lines. In the mid-1950s, several
young country performers joined in rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll
scenes, notably Johnny Cash (“Folsom Prison Blues”), Carl Perkins,
and George Jones. Others, including Conway Twitty, Waylon
Jennings, and Kenny Rogers, also got their professional start in rock
‘n’ roll before later sliding into mainstream country.
Rock ‘n’ roll’s impact on country music was substantial. Young

listeners turned away from country music and toward rock, which
left country music in need of redefining its audience. Yet it also
brought new energies to Nashville’s music industry. Many of the new
rock ‘n’ roll singers, including Presley, recorded in Nashville studios
with the same back-up singers, session players, and even
songwriters who were the mainstays of the country genre. Presley’s
success in particular provided a vital revenue stream for the
Nashville industry.
In the wake of rockabilly’s arrival, several record producers in

Nashville, led by Chet Atkins at RCA and Owen Bradley at Decca,
developed the Nashville Sound, a musical style derived from more
sophisticated pop music. These changes included richer, fuller
layering of instruments throughout a song, minimizing the twangy
sounds of hillbilly and traditional country such as banjo and steel
guitar, and cultivating a smoother style of singing. Other changes
included the gradual incorporation of drums, along with lush string
sections of violins and back-up vocalists with velvet-toned “oohs”
and “ahs” to thicken the sonic texture. Pianists such as Floyd
Cramer crafted a “slip-note” style that took on easy-listening
characteristics, while organ and vibraphone also appeared with
increasing frequency on country recordings. The same small group
of session musicians played for different singers and different record
labels, which added to the consistency in the sound of these
recordings.
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The most successful purveyors of the Nashville Sound were Jim
Reeves, Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, The Browns, and Jimmy Dean.
Patsy Cline (“I Fall to Pieces”) represented the larger shift in country
music, from a downhome musical style tied to its hillbilly and rural
past to a more upscale, sophisticated musical expression of an
upwardly mobile, adult middle class. Cline appeared in formal
evening gowns and furs, for instance, while Jim Reeves, Marty
Robbins, and Eddy Arnold traded the western look for tuxedos, just
as their recordings traded in twang for a palatable pop sheen. Many
of these artists appeared on both the pop and country charts
simultaneously, marking the widespread acceptance of this new style
of country music. The trend of country music toward a pop sound,
combined with the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll, also paved the way for
young, attractive performers such as Sonny James (“Young Love”)
and George Hamilton IV to craft hybrid country-pop careers as teen-
sensation crooners.
In the midst of these developments, the Country Music Association

was established in 1958 as a trade organization charged with
promoting and unifying country music. Within a few years, the CMA
launched a Hall of Fame to celebrate the music’s legacy and
undertook a coordinated marketing campaign to convince potential
advertisers and media executives that country music was a
sophisticated, modern, and respectable genre whose audience was
gaining both affluence and social prestige.
The pop-crossover phenomenon of the Nashville Sound reached its

stylistic extreme in the early 1960s with thick orchestral
accompaniment on hits such as “Sweet Dreams.” The tragic deaths
of Patsy Cline in 1963 and Jim Reeves a year later marked a subtle
change in Nashville recordings. Over the next half decade, an
increasing number of country singers, including Ray Price, Roger
Miller, and Lefty Frizzell, (“Saginaw, Michigan”), embraced a toned-
down version of the Nashville Sound that retained more of an
audible connection to the music’s honky-tonk past than had the
earlier Nashville Sound artists.
Meanwhile, developments in Bakersfield, CA—an oil and farming

town a few hours north of Los Angeles—provided a point of contrast
to the Nashville Sound. Buck Owens (“Act Naturally”) and Merle
Haggard, cultivated a style that was rougher, more indebted to the
musical freedoms of rock ‘n’ roll, and grounded in the growl of
telecaster guitars and hard-swinging shuffle rhythms without the
schmaltz of the Nashville Sound. Their recordings were laced with
irony and a defiant pride that came to signify hard country music.
With those features in place, the Bakersfield sound hearkened back
to honky-tonk, and fans cast it as an antidote to the Nashville Sound.
During the 1950s and 60s, the songwriting community in Nashville

grew in size, prestige, and sophistication. Professional songwriters
such as Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and performers who were also
prolific composers such as the Louvin Brothers (Ira and Charlie)
raised the standard for musical craft and technical sophistication in
country songwriting. Several country artists such as Willie Nelson
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(“Crazy”) launched their professional careers as songwriters rather
than as singers in this era. Their songs appealed to musicians
working on the border between country and rock such as the Everly
Brothers and Roy Orbison, which further raised the profile of
country music within popular culture in general.
Within the general climate of social unrest during the 1960s, a

number of musicians from outside country music took a keen
interest in country’s traditions and roots. Many of them such as Bob
Dylan traveled to Nashville to record and to incorporate aspects of
country music into their performances. In 1968, California rockers
The Byrds recorded an album in Nashville in an effort to fuse their
rock music with country. Other artists followed in their wake, giving
rise to the Country rock trend of that era.
During these years, bluegrass evolved into a more independent

genre. Many bands moved toward progressive bluegrass, a style that
retained instrumental virtuosity, an emphasis on improvisation, and
associations with a roots-oriented identity, while simultaneously
exploring jazz, folk, and rock musical elements. Some musicians,
such as the Country Gentlemen, pushed their version of bluegrass
into the center of the folk revival, matching the vocal styles of the
Kingston Trio. Others, such as the Dillards, combined bluegrass with
psychedelic rock music. Some, such as the Osborne Brothers
(“Rocky Top”), connected with a mainstream country audience while
electrifying their instruments and incorporating drums and other
pop-rock elements.
In the 1960s, female country singers gained greater prominence.

Loretta Lynn staked out musical territory with songs about
outspoken working-class women who challenged gender stereotypes
(“Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin [With Lovin’ on Your Mind]”). Dolly
Parton followed suit a few years later. For singers such as Parton,
Lynn, and Tammy Wynette, country music had been part of their
upbringing, and their working-class, rural personal backgrounds lent
credibility to their stage personas.
In the 1960s, television bridged many of the remaining gaps

between country music and mainstream popular culture. The Ozark
Jubilee had aired a televised version of a barn dance since 1955,
which imported the older radio tradition into middle-class living
rooms. Within a decade, several popular country singers were
hosting their own television shows, including Porter Wagoner and
the Wilburn Brothers. In 1969, pop-singer-turned-country-star Glen
Campbell and Johnny Cash each launched television variety shows
that were not exclusively country (Bob Dylan and Louis Armstrong
both appeared on Cash’s). The same year, CBS premiered Hee Haw,
a comedic and exaggerated portrayal of country music that helped
turn the genre into just another brand of entertainment. While many
of these shows were short-lived, they situated country music
squarely in the middle of conservative, middle-class American
popular culture.
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(iv) 1970s-80s: Shifting boundaries and
crossover success
In the 1970s, mainstream country music reflected the economic,

political, and cultural changes that its audience was experiencing.
One of the biggest topics was the shifting gender roles within
working-class society as the Women’s Liberation Movement
destabilized traditional family dynamics. Country songs routinely
addressed divorce, women leaving marriages, and a sense of
masculinity as under attack. These concerns were heightened by an
economic recession, high inflation, high unemployment, and a
disproportionate loss of the types of manufacturing and manual-
labor jobs that had conventionally been a staple of working-class
occupations.
The biggest male stars in this era were mostly middle-aged singers
comfortable in addressing middle-aged topics. George Jones (“He
Stopped Lovin’ Her Today”) specialized in honky-tonk, beer-
drenched themes, even though his recordings were often styled in
the Nashville Sound. Conway Twitty (“Linda on My Mind”) often
confronted sexuality and infidelity in his lyrics. Kenny Rogers,
Charley Pride—one of the few African Americans to achieve lasting
success in country music—and others all followed suit.
Women who had built careers in the 1960s such as Parton, Wynette
(“D-I-V-O-R-C-E”), and Lynn were joined by others such as Dottie
West, Lynn Anderson, and Donna Fargo. Their music expressed the
ongoing tensions between feminist independence and both the
constraints and rewards of conventional family roles. Male-female
duet partnerships became commonplace during this era, partly
because the format allowed easy exploration of the gender-based
topics that were prevalent at the time. Conway Twitty and Loretta
Lynn (“After the Fire Is Gone”), George Jones and Tammy Wynette
(“Two-Story House”), and Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner were just
a few of the many pairings.
Recordings from the 1970s mainstream Nashville industry have

retrospectively been viewed as “classic” country. They reintroduced
prominent steel guitar, fiddles, and harmonicas into the Nashville
Sound, all of which bespoke musical tradition. Yet their music was
also highly influenced by developments outside of country. Latin
dance beats, electric bass, and rhythmic patterns that belied a debt
to rhythm & blues styles all graced country hits.
By the mid-1970s, the country recording industry had deeply

entrenched practices that centered on powerful record producers, a
core output of singles as opposed to albums, and a stable of session
musicians who were highly specialized craftsmen. Yet several
younger country singers chaffed under that system, especially when
they considered the artistic license given to rock musicians. At the
same time, Austin, TX welcomed country singers into a burgeoning
music scene where honky-tonk and western swing traditions co-
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existed with progressive folk-rock and countercultural ideas
incubated by the hippie communities who settled there in the 1960s.
The combination of Austin’s musically progressive attitude and the
desire to break with the establishment’s studio practices fueled the
Outlaw movement in country music. Willie Nelson and Waylon
Jennings shaped new identities that were built on a rebellious, anti-
establishment attitude and expressed through stark, sparsely
accompanied recordings that recalled earlier roots of country music.
The outlaws also brought attention to singer-songwriters such as
Jerry Jeff Walker, Mickey Newberry, Guy Clark, Kris Kristofferson,
and Townes Van Zandt, most of whom had deep Texan roots, and to
revivalists of western swing music such as Asleep at the Wheel. In
1976, the television program Austin City Limits debuted on PBS,
providing a nationally accessible stage for what became known
collectively as progressive country.
Other country musicians in the 1970s forged connections with

southern rock, which shared with country common roots in hillbilly,
folk, and blues music along with a perspective grounded in the
white, working-class South. Charlie Daniels and Hank Williams, Jr.
(“Family Tradition”), for instance, recorded with The Marshall
Tucker Band and subsequently imported some of southern rock’s
blues-based electric guitar riffs, pounding rhythm sections, emphasis
on live performance, and youth-oriented, rebellious attitude into
mainstream country.
Many of country music’s stalwart traditions underwent

modernization during the 1970s. The Grand Ole Opry moved from its
downtown facility to a state-of-the-art theater and theme park in
suburban Nashville, literally and symbolically embracing the middle-
class population now two generations removed from the rural
landscape. Along with this shift, an increasing number of country
singers cultivated the smooth, pop-infused styles that had first
appeared with the Nashville Sound over a decade earlier. This side
of country music had been kept alive through the 1960s and early
1970s by artists such as Glen Campbell (“Galveston”) and Charlie
Rich. In the mid-1970s, John Denver and Olivia Newton John gained
notoriety for their country-pop crossover recordings, whose success
raised passionate objections from some fans and artists who
bemoaned the apparent loss of country’s twang.
The trend toward crossover styles, known as countrypolitan,

intensified in the late 1970s with the success of Barbara Mandrell,
Ronnie Milsap, and others whose recordings and even wardrobes
were indistinguishable from pop music. In 1980, Dolly Parton starred
in, wrote, and recorded a theme song for the movie 9 to 5. The hit
recording combined horns and a square rock beat that mirrored the
jazz-rock sounds of bands such as Chicago. That same year, John
Travolta’s appearance in Urban Cowboy enticed droves of new fans
into country honky-tonks and promoted country ballads with soft-
rock stylings. These developments culminated in Dolly Parton and
Page 13 of 28
Kenny Rogers’s duet “Islands in the Stream,” composed by disco
legends The Bee Gees, which was the number-one song on both
country and pop charts in 1983.
The band Alabama continued the practice of close-harmony singing

in mainstream country music that the Statler Brothers and Oak
Ridge Boys had made popular in the 1970s. Until Alabama’s arrival,
bands (as opposed to solo singers, duets, and the occasional vocal
ensemble) were virtually unknown within country music. Alabama
combined traditional country images with a pop-country sound that
produced a string of number-one hits and widespread popularity in
the 1980s, all while paving the way for yet more bands within the
genre such as Exile and, later, Lonestar.
Country music’s fusion with pop music in the early 1980s reflected
the political and economic tenor of those years. The Cold War’s arms
race stirred up patriotism, while Ronald Reagan’s economic policies
trumpeted material excess and triumphs of capitalism, amplified by
his persona as a Hollywood cowboy star. Country music during this
era favored styles that were endlessly upbeat in their themes, laced
with synth-pop sounds, and, symbolically, offered a glamorized
musical interpretation of the iconic American cowboy.
By the mid-1980s, the countrypolitan trend had faded, and country

singers increasingly eschewed pop-crossover sounds. They turned
instead to musical revivals of country styles that were steeped in
tradition, known broadly as neotraditionalist country. George Strait
earned fame with his western swing recordings (“Right or Wrong”)
and a stage presence forged by years of performing in East Texas
venues. Dwight Yoakam’s hard-edged twang and Bakersfield shuffles
furthered the revival, as did Randy Travis’s Southern accent and
honky-tonk recordings, and Ricky Skaggs’s bluegrass prowess. The
mother-and-daughter duo of Naomi and Wynonna Judd evoked the
family duet acts of the 1930s and 1940s, with songs about rural
nostalgia (“John Deere Tractor”). Similarly, Reba McEntire
channeled the vocal techniques of Patsy Cline while playing up her
rodeo cowgirl, Oklahoma ranch roots.
Although the core country music audience shrank during the

neotraditionalist era, country music shored up its presence as a
segment of popular culture in the late 1980s. Older generations of
country stars opened theaters in Branson, MO, which soon rivaled
Nashville as a tourist destination for fans interested in country
music, while Dolly Parton launched a theme park, Dollywood, in
1986, which promised a fusion of Appalachian traditions, live
country music, and contemporary family entertainment.
(v) 1990s-2000s: Reinvention and roots

revival
Page 14 of 28
Garth Brooks, 2008.
Country singer Garth Brooks performs during a charity concert, Friday, Jan. 25, 2008, in
Los Angeles, to benefit the Southern California 2008 Fire Intervention Relief Effort
(F.I.R.E). (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Beginning in 1989, a confluence of events brought an unprecedented

commercial boom to country music. The arrival of exceptionally
talented artists coincided with new marketing strategies to engage
fans, technology that more accurately tracked the popularity of
country music, and a political and economic climate that focused
attention on the genre. Garth Brooks (“Friends in Low Places”) in
particular attracted fans with his fusion of neotraditionalist country
and stadium rock. His stadium concerts promised the same quality
of special effects that fans expected from rock stars, while his music
drew equally from George Strait and Journey. Other artists such as
Brooks and Dunn (“Boot Scootin’ Boogie”) also combined
Page 15 of 28
conventional country with slick, rock elements, while Lorrie Morgan,
Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Kathy Mattea updated neotraditionalist
styles.
Line dancing became extremely popular among country fans, partly

as a result of marketing strategies in the early 1990s where record
labels commissioned choreography for new recordings, such as Billy
Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart.” The fad brought fans into honky-
tonks and night clubs in impressive numbers, particularly in regions
of the country where two-stepping and more conventional country
dancing had not been popular.
In the early 1990s, Nielson SoundScan and Broadcast Data Systems

technology changed the way that sales numbers and radio airplay
data was collected. The new methods relied less on human reporting
and collected data from more retailers who catered to the country
music audience. Sales numbers for country music skyrocketed in the
ensuing years, partly because country sales had simply been
underreported by previous systems and partly because rising
popularity breeds further interest.
During the same years, America experienced a sharp economic

downturn. Popular attention turned to the so-called soccer-mom
demographic: middle-class parents living and working in suburban
communities. Political rhetoric focused on socially conservative
family values, economic recovery, and a reliance on the working- and
middle-class production engine, symbolically a “Southernization of
America.” Country fit into this trend, as stars of the early 1990s
marketed their music as “new country,” a style that downplayed the
rural traditions and historical associations of country music and
promised instead music that spoke to the middle-class, suburban
population concerned with family, jobs, and navigating middle-age.
The musical style of new country included slick, well-blended studio

production with many layers of instruments. Many recordings
featured accordions and Cajun rhythms (Vince Gill, “Little Liza
Jane”), while others included gospel choirs or more traditional
fiddles and steel guitar, all backed by what were essentially pop
rhythm sections. The lyrics similarly shifted from rural traditional
topics to a more global perspective.
By 1993, country music accounted for nearly one-fifth of all music

sales—more than twice its numbers from just four year earlier. Its
popularity attracted record executives, musicians, songwriters, and
producers from outside the genre. That influx, combined with an
audience that was newly attracted to country and had little invested
in its historical roots, pushed the genre further toward pop musical
styles and images. Canadian Shania Twain and rock producer Mutt
Lange teamed up to create country music that was popular for line
dancing and that featured light-hearted lyrics about love and young
women’s independence (“Honey, I’m Home”). Faith Hill followed the
trend (“This Kiss”), and by the late 1990s, country songs were again
Page 16 of 28
routinely appearing on the pop charts. Any audible vestiges of
honky-tonk twang were erased from the music, replaced by clever
rhythmic hooks and electric guitar parts.
During the 1990s, a musical countermovement gained momentum.

Alternative country, or alt.country, emerged in the late 1980s when
local and regional rock and punk bands took an interest in both
traditional country music and the country-rock of the 1960s. Bands
such as Uncle Tupelo (“No Depression”) and Whiskeytown combined
indie rock with honky-tonk influences, echoing the work of earlier
musicians such as Gram Parsons. Their music featured distorted
electric guitars, a live sound, and a reinterpretation of early hillbilly
or honky-tonk music through a rock lens, layered with an insurgent
attitude and hipster irony. Within a few years, the alternative
country movement had expanded to include almost any independent
musical style that defined itself in opposition to mainstream
commercial country and that claimed a connection to traditional
country roots, including bluegrass groups, Bakersfield revivalists,
old-time string bands touring as jam bands, and singer-songwriters
who relied on country themes. The diverse alternative country fan
base embraced older country stars who had lost currency with the
mainstream audience, especially Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, and
later, Loretta Lynn. Record labels such as Bloodshot and publications
such as No Depression provided an infrastructure for the movement.
The internet allowed fans to connect with bands and bands to
market and distribute their music without the publicity resources of
a major label.
Starting around 2000, mainstream country music underwent a slow

return to a more roots-oriented, traditional country sound. The Dixie
Chicks scored mainstream radio hits with recordings that recalled
Bakersfield, honky-tonk sounds, and even old-time murder ballads,
while simultaneously returning bluegrass instrumentation, especially
fiddles and banjos, to the forefront of commercial country. Other
bands and artists followed in their wake, particularly Brad Paisley. In
2000, the soundtrack to the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
accelerated the move away from country-pop. The soundtrack, which
sold eight million copies and won the Grammy for album of the year,
featured bluegrass, alt country stars, covers of Jimmie Rodgers and
the Carter Family, and new performances from an aging Ralph
Stanley. While it made little headway on commercial country radio, it
paved the way for bluegrass artists such as Alison Krauss to garner
some recognition in mainstream country.
An economic recession and the terrorist attacks of September 11,

2001, also affected country music. Alan Jackson’s self-penned,
reflective ballad on the terrorist attacks, “Where Were You (When
the World Stopped Turning),” earned such acclaim that it pulled
country music into the national spotlight. Other country artists
followed with songs celebrating military service, the values of home
and family over material wealth, gospel tunes, and patriotic
anthems.
Page 17 of 28
In the mid-2000s, the MuzikMafia caught the country audience’s
attention with a fusion of rock attitudes, traditional, twangy country
music, and a rhetoric that rejected the commercial dimension of
country music. Their rise to fame brought working-class identities
and a distinctly Southern, “redneck” image to the fore of country
music, most notably with Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman.”
Countering this resurgence of roots-oriented country was the

inclusion of the genre in mainstream pop reality television contests.
American Idol winners began making headway in country music,
particularly Carrie Underwood. Their music was highly polished pop-
crossover fare, in which country themes were subtly embedded. The
country audience embraced this uptown version of country music,
and Underwood was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. A few years
later, Taylor Swift continued the crossover trend in country music
with teen-centric songs that brought a younger generation of
listeners into country music while challenging any distinction
between country and pop music.
Since the propagation of digital technologies that allowed rampant

file-sharing in the early 2000s, popular music in general has faced
dwindling album sales and a shifting marketplace where fans appear
more loyal to individual artists than to a particular genre. The older
listeners in the country audience were slower to adopt the new
technologies and cultural habits, which insulated the genre from
some—but not all—of the negative effect on sales. That insulation
encouraged artists outside the genre to switch to country music.
Rock singer Kid Rock, pop singer-songwriter Jewel and pop-rock
frontman Darius Rucker all released country recordings, albeit with
varying levels of success. Yet as country music felt the effects of the
changing commercial landscape, mainstream trends have moved
toward country singers who build regional reputations and loyal fans
as independent singer-songwriter musicians with identifiably unique
sounds before launching a recording career. Those pathways into the
music industry had characterized alternative country or rock scenes
rather than mainstream country just a decade earlier. Miranda
Lambert and the Zac Brown Band are both evidence of this trend.
By 2010, the musical style of mainstream country featured a strong

dose of southern rock, including an emphasis on guitar-driven live-
sounding performances and endless references in the lyrics to the
artists and songs from rock’s past, rather than classic country. That
trend, combined with the continuation of crossover music structured
on rhythmic hooks and pop drum patterns, has overshadowed more
traditional sounds in country music, yet those too remain audible as
essential tokens that differentiate country from other genres in the
contemporary musical landscape.
Page 18 of 28
2. Fan culture
Even as country music’s styles and themes have changed, the

relationship between fans and country artists has persisted. Rituals
such as the annual CMA Music Festival (formerly Fan Fair, launched
in 1972) promise accessibility where fans can meet their favorite
stars in person, as does the Opry. Country audiences expect artists
to acknowledge the fans’ loyalty and act as if they could be any next-
door neighbor. Fan magazines cultivate this attitude in their
interviews and with features such as stars’ cooking recipes.
The strongest unifying factor in country music is the way its

listeners claim the title of country fans. This method of expressing
personal identity through one’s musical preferences generates a
sense of community and shared values that include empathy with
working-class culture (even for fans whose lifestyles are removed
from that) and a choice to differentiate oneself from the pop-culture
mainstream. Country music’s meaning is also inscribed principally
by the fans, who interpret country songs from their own cultural
perspectives. Yet the fan base consists of individuals with radically
different experiences and outlooks, a factor that leads diversity of
meanings ascribed to even a single country performance and sharply
divided factions within the audience.
Although the core of the country fan base was historically working-
class white rural people with a first-hand connection to agrarian life,
that has changed radically over the past century. Even in those first
few decades of recorded country, that description failed to account
for all listeners. Although the music industry attempted to draw
stark racial lines between musical genres, both musicians and
audiences spanned racial and ethnic categories, embracing whatever
music existed natively within their communities. Similarly, the
working-class identity of the audience changed radically after WWII,
and recent demographic surveys confirm that both education and
income levels of country listeners are at or above national averages.
In spite of these characteristics, claiming to be a country fan still
carries with it a negative cultural stigma that derives from the
genre’s adherence to traditional rhetoric and conscious efforts to
remain distinct from other pop music.
Socially, country music often functions mainly as a sonic backdrop

for the routines of its listeners. Country fans listen to their music on
the radio while working and driving, as well as at parties and
community gatherings. The music serves as accompaniment for and
an instigator of dancing and other communal activities. While the
majority of country songs address romantic relationships, lyrics also
include frequent references to food, revelry, and family rituals, both
of which reflect its primary social functions. Although musical styles
within country may diverge, these social functions continue to unify
the genre.
Page 19 of 28
3. Country music and politics
Country music has been linked with various political platforms and
campaigns since its earliest recorded history, yet has never adopted
a unified political perspective. Early country singers often performed
on the campaign trail for populist candidates across the South. A
number of country singers and producers moved into key political
roles during those years, including Jimmie Davis (governor of
Louisiana) and W. Lee O’Daniel (governor of Texas). In the 1960s,
mirroring national changes in the political landscape, country music
followed the South into a predominantly Republican identity. In
1974, Richard Nixon performed on stage at the dedication of the
new Opry theater.
Country’s political associations became far more pronounced during

the Vietnam War, memorably with Merle Haggard’s recordings such
as “Okie from Muskogee” that were widely understood as criticism
of the anti-war movement and a representation of middle America’s
“silent majority.”. On the other side of the spectrum, in the
mid-1970s, some progressive country artists including Michael
Murphy embraced a countercultural political stance in their music.
Country’s right-wing, politically conservative reputation grew with

its appropriation by national politicians in the mid-1980s. George
H.W. Bush selected a Randy Travis song as a theme for his social
agenda. In a much-publicized national interview during her
husband’s presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton negatively invoked
Tammy Wynette as an anti-feminist foil for Clinton’s own modern,
self-assured brand of woman. Following the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001, Toby Keith and Darryl Worley each garnered
major attention with defiant, revenge-oriented songs that matched a
Republican rhetoric. High-profile country singers routinely appear at
Republican campaign events and at the national convention.
Yet counter-examples also abound. Garth Brooks suggested in an

interview that “We Shall Be Free” was a gay-rights anthem. The
Dixie Chicks were lambasted by the national press for criticizing
George W. Bush in 2003; in the aftermath, they joined with rock
musicians for what amounted to a Democratic campaign to increase
voter turn-out. And Johnny Cash’s estate denied permission for his
music to be used as part of a Republican national convention—
famously refusing the Democrats as well and claiming political
neutrality.
Research has indicated that only a very small percentage of hit

country songs contain overt political content. Instead, political
interpretations of country music have been based largely on the
values expressed in the song lyrics, especially attention to family, a
work ethic, and a Southern evangelical, socially conservative
religious outlook, all of which are touted as adhering to whichever
party or candidate is focusing on those values at the moment.
Page 20 of 28
4. Global country
Country music has long existed in settings outside the United States.
In some regions, including much of Brazil, local musicians have
developed a form of country music that matches the American
tradition in social functions and cultural meaning, yet is musically
unrelated. Canada, by contrast, boasts a thriving scene with its own
stars and national awards show that overlaps extensively with the
United States’ scene. The largest country music presence outside of
North America is found in Australia. In the 1920s, American record
labels including Edison and Banner marketed their hillbilly
recordings to Australian audiences. The music resonated with local
vernacular traditions, which also addressed working-class, agrarian
life in a country where expansive stretches of land and a rich cowboy
culture. Australian musicians such as Tex Morton began recording in
the 1930s with songs that were largely patterned on American
country. In the 1950s and 1960s, Slim Dusty and others built a native
country music scene in Australia, even while still tapping into
American songs and styles. Australian fans formed their own
national trade association in 1992 and today have their own stars
and traditions. Moving the opposite direction, several Australian
stars, including Keith Urban and alternative country singer Kasey
Chambers, have recently carved out successful careers in America.
The roots of most global country scenes were sown by American

servicemen stationed abroad in the 1940s and 50s, who brought
country music to local musicians. There, the traditions incubated
and were transformed into local expressions. In Liverpool, England,
for instance, local musicians preserved older country traditions quite
stringently. As a result, many decades later, 1950s-style honky-tonk
still thrives there.
In many international locations, bluegrass has come to represent a

form of distinctly American folk expression. Scholars have
documented bluegrass in Japan and the Czech Republic, among
other places, where the music’s appeal comes mainly from its
exoticism and tradition of virtuosic performance.
In the British Isles and Northern Europe, country music has taken on
two different guises. One is as a representation of traditional
working-class musical expression, similar to its meaning and
function in the United States. Scholars have documented places such
as Norway, Austria, and England, where local fans support country
music that is loosely derived from American traditions, yet that has
come to represent local artistic expression of class identity and
traditional values. In a very different guise, however, country music
sometimes appears as a caricature of American culture: an
exaggerated Wild West representation of the cowboy. In these
settings, country music events are staged as an exotic attraction,
with extreme interpretations of musical twang and cowboy culture
presented as novelty.
Page 21 of 28
5. Scholarly approaches
Early scholarship on country music, published in folklore journals in

the late 1950s and 1960s, focused primarily on hillbilly recordings
and their cultural origins. In 1968, Bill C. Malone published Country
Music U.S.A., based on his doctoral dissertation at the University of
Texas at Austin, which was the first academic work to draw together
the history of many different strands of music and define them as a
single, coherent genre. In the subsequent few decades, most
scholarship on country music adopted a positivist historical
approach toward documenting biography and musical developments.
In the 1980s, writers took substantial interest in country artists’

biographies. During that time, a number of successful movies,
including Coal Miner’s Daughter and Sweet Dreams, cultivated
popular interest in the subject as well. That trend has continued.
From the 1990s onward, scholarship on country music has shifted
toward issue-driven approaches from various academic disciplines.
Cultural theorists and sociologists have focused at length on issues
of authenticity and its construction within country music. Literary
scholars have engaged in close readings of song lyrics.
Anthropologists have addressed country music as a manifestation of
working-class identity. Cultural historians have examined race,
especially constructions of whiteness, within the genre. Extensive
writings from many disciplines have focused both on documenting
the historical roles of women in country music and on analyzing
issues of gender expression within the genre, including topics on gay
country fans and sexuality. Recent publications have also addressed
genre studies. Other developing perspectives consider the meaning
of region, geography, and place within country music, and the
boundaries between art and commodity. Major academic
conferences in a range of disciplines, including American studies,
musicology, history, folklore, and sociology, routinely feature new
research on country. Both country music and the academic
treatment of the genre continue to balance an allegiance to tradition
with contemporary outlooks and perspectives, thereby capturing the
attention of new audiences.
See also Country-western dance
Page 22 of 28
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Lost (New York, 2007)
C. Berry, ed.: The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National

Barn Dance(Urbana, 2008)
D. Cusic: Discovering Country Music (Westport, CT, 2008)
P. Fox and B. Ching, ed..: Old Roots, New Routes: The

Cultural Politics of Alt.Country Music (Ann Arbor, 2008)
P. Huber: Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music

in the Piedmont South (Chapel Hill, NC, 2008)
K. M. McCusker: Lonesome Cowgirls and Honky-tonk

Angels: The Women of Barn Dance Radio(Urbana, IL,
2008)
R. A. Brasseaux: Cajun Breakdown: The Emergence of an

American-Made Music (New York, 2009)
Page 27 of 28
P. B. Cox: The Garth Factor: The Career behind Country’s
Big Boom(New York, 2009)
L. Edwards: Johnny Cash and the Paradox of American

Identity (Bloomington, IN, 2009)
P. Fox: Natural Acts: Gender, Race, and Rusticity in

Country Music (Ann Arbor, MI, 2009)
B. Mazor: Meeting Jimmie Rodgers: How America’s

Original Roots Music Hero Changed the Pop Sounds of a
Century(New York, 2009)
J. Neal: The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Legacy in

Country Music(Bloomington, IN, 2009)
R. Stanley: Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times

(New York, 2009)
M. Streissguth: Eddy Arnold: Pioneer of the Nashville

Sound(Jackson, MS, 2009)
D. B. Pruett: MuzikMafia: From the Local Nashville Scene

to the National Mainstream (Jackson, MS, 2010)
T. Stimeling: Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The

Countercultural Sounds of Austin’s Progressive Country
Music Scene (New York, 2011)
More on this topic

Country music <http://oxfordmusiconline.com/
grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/
9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-
e-0000006696> in Oxford Music Online <http://
oxfordmusiconline.com>
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Country Music

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Country Music

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Its primary themes include an imagined rural idealism, a celebration

The contemporary country music industry is centered in Nashville,

Beyond its commercial face, country music exists across a broad

1. History and musical evolution in the

Since the earliest commercial recordings of country music in the

(i) Origins and development in the 1920s

The roots of country music are found in diverse musical traditions.

Prior to the first recordings of country music, most performers were

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, folklorists,

The catalyst that brought together these disparate folk traditions

The earliest recordings that scholars identify as country music

During those same years, radio stations sponsored by local

In the mid-1920s, many record labels catalogued rural, folk-derived

In the same era, professionally trained entertainers who were not

A significant set of recordings in 1927 transformed the emergent

During those first years of commercial recordings and radio

(ii) 1930s-40s: National expansion

During the 1930s and 40s, country music fostered increased

The proliferation of barn dances, with additions such as the Renfro

In Texas and Oklahoma, string bands blended traditional fiddle tunes

After WWII, the demographics of the country music audience shifted

Bluegrass music developed in the years after World War II as a

The biggest star of honky-tonk was Hank Williams (“Your Cheatin’

Cajun music and culture, cultivated in the French-speaking portions

Country music in the early 1950s centered on honky-tonk, western

Rock ‘n’ roll’s impact on country music was substantial. Young

In the wake of rockabilly’s arrival, several record producers in

In the midst of these developments, the Country Music Association

The pop-crossover phenomenon of the Nashville Sound reached its

Meanwhile, developments in Bakersfield, CA—an oil and farming

During the 1950s and 60s, the songwriting community in Nashville

Within the general climate of social unrest during the 1960s, a

During these years, bluegrass evolved into a more independent

In the 1960s, female country singers gained greater prominence.

In the 1960s, television bridged many of the remaining gaps

In the 1970s, mainstream country music reflected the economic,

Recordings from the 1970s mainstream Nashville industry have

By the mid-1970s, the country recording industry had deeply

Other country musicians in the 1970s forged connections with

Many of country music’s stalwart traditions underwent

The trend toward crossover styles, known as countrypolitan,

The band Alabama continued the practice of close-harmony singing

By the mid-1980s, the countrypolitan trend had faded, and country

Although the core country music audience shrank during the

(v) 1990s-2000s: Reinvention and roots

Beginning in 1989, a confluence of events brought an unprecedented

Line dancing became extremely popular among country fans, partly

In the early 1990s, Nielson SoundScan and Broadcast Data Systems

During the same years, America experienced a sharp economic

The musical style of new country included slick, well-blended studio

By 1993, country music accounted for nearly one-fifth of all music

During the 1990s, a musical countermovement gained momentum.

Starting around 2000, mainstream country music underwent a slow

An economic recession and the terrorist attacks of September 11,

Countering this resurgence of roots-oriented country was the

Since the propagation of digital technologies that allowed rampant

By 2010, the musical style of mainstream country featured a strong

Even as country music’s styles and themes have changed, the

The strongest unifying factor in country music is the way its

Socially, country music often functions mainly as a sonic backdrop

Country’s political associations became far more pronounced during

Country’s right-wing, politically conservative reputation grew with