You’ll find multitudes of music genres in today’s musical world. Country music is truly one of my top picks so I thought I would provide a little bit of country history to the forefront. If you don’t know a good deal about it suffice it to say that all country songs tell a tale. It has been said that these songs are about our lives, who we are and where we began. Country music made a couple of the very best selling solo musical artists of all time in the US. Elvis Presley’s early career was clearly country hillbilly music and he proceeded to become one of the defining figures in the birth of Rock n Roll. Garth Brooks is the second bestselling solo artist in United States history and has a very well liked show in Las Vegas. That’s quite an extraordinary start. Going back in history, however, we discover that it dates back to the early 1920′s in America and it has its roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, Blues, Bluegrass and Gospel music. Early country music was termed “Hillbilly” music however the words changed to Country Music during the early 1940′s. In its beginnings, Country music was pure American; the country music crowd was American, its performers were American and its sound was American.
1925 brought in the era of the “Singing Cowboy” when the first cowboy song was recorded by Carl T. Sprague. The full rise in popularity of the singing cowboy wasn’t really recognized until talking movies starring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter and even a young John Wayne became popular in the 1930′s. John Wayne, however, didn’t in reality sing; he just played the movie part of the cowboy while somebody else supplied the singing voice. But he was off and away to an incredible movie career. With the launch of Television to the American people, the era of the singing cowboy movies came to an end in the 1950′s. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers carried on their roles as “singing cowboys” in some of the first western series produced for television. In the film Toy Story 2, “Woody’s Roundup” was shown as an interpretation of one of these first television series.
The 1960′s brought variations and diversity to the country music genre as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, June Carter Cash, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Marty Robbins, Eddie Arnold as well as others became the Country music stars. Several of the country songs recorded in the 1960′s crossed over to the Pop charts incorporating another music culture to the country sound. Lots of country music singers employed their songwriting skills for both themselves as well as other artists. Kris Kristopherson wrote a lot of songs for country artists, however, he also wrote “Me and Bobby McGee” which Janis Joplin made popular before her unforeseen death. A very well liked Elvis song “Kentucky Rain” was authored by Eddie Rabbitt; another really good country music songwriter. Eddie Rabbitt also wrote songs for films including the title song for “Every Which Way but Loose” starring Clint Eastwood. The 70′s and 80′s brought completely new changes to the scene. With the popularity of the film “Urban Cowboy” in 1980 starring John Travolta, artists like Barbara Mandrell, Alabama, the Oak Ridge Boys, The Bellamy Brothers, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and George Strait became extremely popular among numerous others in the country music field. Everybody wanted to be a cowboy. As the times have changed, it has reinvented itself to fit to these changing times. To mention a few, singers like Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Reba McIntyre, Zac Brown Band, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts are all making their mark on the country music scene.
A final thought, pay attention closely to the words of the country music songs…hear the stories about life and find out if you’re able to find a bit of yourself and your life in these amazing songs.
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Some information about how country music first began!