|
|
History of Country MusicCountry music is a catch-all category that embraces several different music genres. Each style is unique in its execution, use of rhythms, and its chord structures. Country music subgenres include:
Early historyImmigrants 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[5] 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 primarily 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. Throughout the nineteenth century, several immigrant groups from Central Europe and the British Isles moved to Texas. These groups interacted with the Spanish, Mexican, Native American, and U.S. communities that were already established in Texas. As a result of this cohabitation and extended contact, Texas has developed unique cultural traits that are rooted in the culture of all of its founding communities. The settlers from the area now known as Germany and the Czech Republic established large dance halls in Texas where farmers and townspeople from neighboring communities could gather, dance, and spend a night enjoying each other’s company. The music at these halls, brought from Europe, included the waltz and the polka, played on an accordion, an instrument invented in Italy, which was loud enough to fill the entire dance hall. Early recorded historyColumbia 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, Ernest Stoneman, 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. The origins of modern country music can be traced to two seminal influences and a remarkable coincidence. 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. Jimmie Rodgers' influenceJimmie Rodgers built on the traditional ballads and musical influences of the South, and wrote and sang songs that ordinary people could relate to. He took the experiences of his own life in the Meridian, Mississippi, area and those of the people he met on the railroad, in bars and on the streets to create his lyrics. He used the musical influences of the traditional ballads and the folk to create his tunes. Since 1953, Meridian's Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Festival has been held annually during May to honor the anniversary of Rodgers' death. The first festival was on May 26, 1953. Pathos, humor, women, whiskey, murder, death, disease and destitution are all present in his lyrics and these themes have been carried forward and developed by his followers. People like Hank Williams, Sr., Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Townes van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash have also suffered, and shared their suffering, bringing added dimensions to those themes. It would be fair to say that Jimmie Rodgers sang about life and death from a male perspective, and this viewpoint has dominated some areas of country music. It would also be fair to credit his influence for the development of honky tonk, rockabilly and the Bakersfield sound. The Carter Family's influenceThe other Ralph Peer discovery, the Carter family, consisted of A.P. Carter, his wife Sara and their sister-in-law Maybelle. They built a long recording career based on the sonorous bass of A.P., the beautiful singing of Sara and the unique guitar playing of Maybelle. A.P.'s main contribution was the collection of songs and ballads that he picked up in his expeditions into the hill country around their home in Maces Springs, Virginia. In addition, being a man, he made it possible for Sara and Maybelle to perform without stigma at that time. Sara and Maybelle arranged the songs that A.P. collected and wrote their own songs. They were the precursors of a line of talented female country singers like Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Skeeter Davis, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton and June Carter Cash, the daughter of Maybelle and the wife of Johnny Cash. Hank WilliamsHank Williams is a major foundation stone in the structure of country music, but the most influential artist from the Jimmie Rodgers strand 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"). The 1950sOne contemporary of Williams outpaced him in reaching the Top 5 Country list. Eddy Arnold placed a total of 8 songs in the years 1947 through 1949, and one each in the years 1951 and 1954. 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. What is now most commonly referred to as rockabilly was most popular with country music fans in the 1950s, and was recorded and performed by country musicians. Within a few years many rockabilly musicians returned to a more mainstream style, or had defined their own unique style. By the end of the decade, traditional artists such as Ray Price, Marty Robbins, and Johnny Horton began to shift the industry away from the Rock n' Roll influences of the mid-50's. The Nashville soundDuring the 1960s, country music became 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 styling's: a prominent and 'smooth' vocal, backed by a string section and vocal chorus. Instrumental soloing was de-emphasized 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. Although country music has great stylistic diversity, some critics say this diversity was strangled by the formulaic approach of the Nashville Sound producers. Others point to the commercial need to re-invent country in the face of the dominance of '50s rock'n'roll and subsequent British Invasion. The release of Buck Owens Together Again and its simplistic arrangement in 1964 marked the beginning of the end for the Nashville Sound. Other artists such as George Jones, Faron Young, Connie Smith, and Mel Tillis soon found success in the movement away from the complex arrangements of the Nashville Sound. Bakersfield SoundThe most exciting place to be (artistically, if not commercially, speaking) in the late 1950's and early 1960's, was Bakersfield, a California town northeast of Los Angeles, where two giants of country music founded a new school of (hard-edged) honky-tonk at a time when Nashville was selling out to orchestral pop. The cadenced beats and trademark twin guitar sound (featuring both an electric guitar and pedal steel guitar), infused country with a taste of rock. Buck Owens became the first artist to emerge from this new hard-edged Honky tonk sound. Beginning with Under your spell again, Buck and his buckaroos began a period of unmatched success that spanned the 60's. Another artist who came out of Bakersfield was Merle Haggard. A fan of Lefty Frizzell, Haggard, introduced a mixture of scruff songwriting with the adopted twin guitar sound of Buck Owens. Not NashvilleIn 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[20] with the I Can't Stop Loving You single, and recording the hugely popular album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. The supposedly "vanilla"-flavored sounds that emanated from Nashville led to a reaction among musicians outside Nashville, who saw that there was more to the genre than "the same old tunes, fiddle and guitar..." (Waylon Jennings).
Within Nashville in the 1980s, George Strait, Ricky Skaggs, Randy Travis and others brought a return to the traditional values. Their musicianship, songwriting and producing skills helped to revive the genre momentarily. However, even they, and such long-time greats as Jones, Cash, and Haggard, fell from popularity as the record companies again imposed their formulas and refused to promote established artists. Capitol Records made an almost wholesale clearance of their country artists in the 1960s. Other developmentsThe 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 mid 1990s country western music was influenced by the popularity of line dancing. This influence was so great that Chet Atkins was quoted as saying "The music has gotten pretty bad, I think. It's all that damn line dancing."[22] By the end of the decade, however, at least one line dance choreographer complained that good country line dance music was no longer being released. In the 1990s a new form of country music emerged, called by some alternative country, nontraditional, 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. One infrequent, but consistent theme in country music is that of proud, stubborn independence. "Country Boy Can Survive", and "Copperhead Road" are two of the more serious songs along those lines; while "Some Girls Do", and "Redneck Woman" are more light hearted variations on the theme. There are at least three U.S. cable networks devoted to the genre: CMT (owned by Viacom), VH-1 Country (also owned by Viacom), and GAC (owned by The E. W. Scripps Company). The original American country music video cable channel was TNN (The Nashville Network). The channel was launched in the early 1980s. In 2000, the channel was renamed and reformatted to TNN (The National Network), which was a general interest network to compete with USA Network, TNT, and Super stations, such as TBS and WGN. Subsequently, The National Network became Spike TV, the first network for men. PerformersBelow is a list of notable country performers alphabetically by period, with each listing followed by a description of the artists' work. Early innovators
The Golden Age & Country Pop In the 60s, 70s & 80s
Country Rock
|
