Evolution of Country Music
Evolution of Country Music
History of Country
According to Wikipedia, "Country (Also called country and western) is a genre of
popular music that takes its roots from genres such as blues and old-time
music, and various types of American fold music including Appalachian, Cajun,
and the cowboy Western music types of Red Dirt, New Mexico, Texas country, and
Tejano. Its popularized roots originate in the Southern United States of the early 1920s."
With the country genre, the consistency of using the instruments is played in fiddles, banjos, guitars, and string basses. Electric basses, pedal steel guitars, keyboards, and drums were later added to the genre. Below is the first country song that was recorded on June 14, 1923.
The Little Log Cabin in the Lane Fiddlin-John Carson
The 1940s-1950s
By the 1940s, Western Swing also found a footing in the Country genre in Texas along with Oklahoma, and California. The additions of instruments such as drums, saxophones, pianos, steel-string guitar were added in with the mix of country and western sounds of jazz, blues, and Dixieland of New Orleans. Even for the famous Elvis Presley, the Rockabilly music, he combined R&B music and Combined western music, which got popular by the 1950s. The famous musician at the time was Hank Williams. Kitty Wells, and Patsy Cline.
Hank Williams
Kitty Wells
Patsy Cline
The 1980s-Present
According to Browns Education, "Since the 1980's, country music has shadowed much of popular music, taking roots in style of instrumentation from the history of country western music, and combing it with other genres of music. Some other genres that have been incorporated include Rock, Pop, Rap/Hip-Hop, Disco, and many others.
Famous Musicians from 1980's and Beyond-Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Carrie Underwood, and Chris Young
Gettin' You Home-Chris Young
Music Elements
For the Music elements for John Carson 'The Little Log Cabin in the Lane' is Melody. Listening to the song, the music starts out with the violin, then later supports the singer as an Accompaniment throughout the song.
For the music elements for Chris Young 'Gettin' You Home', the beat and the tempo are at a steady pace where it's not too fast, or too slow.
Lastly, for the second element, both of the songs have a meter of 4/4. In my personal opinion, seems like the country songs in1930-1940s seemed short less than 3 mins, but listening to the songs now, all songs last at least 3 to 4 mins long.
Personal Opinion
In my personal opinion of how the genre of the country in the 1930s and present music is both unique. I was not aware that Country was introduced in 1920 until I did my research on this genre. I have watched the movie "Coal Miner's Daugther" previously but did not know which year it was based on. In the movie, actors did mention that Hank Williams was part of the movie, so I am guessing Loretta Lynn was just as popular as Patsy Cline. With the present Country, it does play with various genres such as country singers singing in Hip-Hop songs like Billy Ray Cyrus featured in Lil Nas X "Old Town Road". Billy Ray Cyrus is known to be a country star who started his career as a country singer in 1989.
Work Cited
“Country Music.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music.
“Blog #29.” Home - Browne Education Campus, www.brownedc.org/teacher_pages/king_s_music_room/mr__kings_music_blog/blog__29.
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ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Texas, country music was a major part of my life. I had no idea it was popular in California or that the first song was recorded in 1923! Though the origin of this style of music happened a little before the great depression, I can imagine it was influenced by the struggles of that time period.
ReplyDeleteI've loved to listen to country music as long as I can remember, my dad was always blasting it on the radio. I love how diverse country music is, even though it all sounds a lot alike, every song is it's own story, some with super deep meanings. Also, it's come a long way from where it started in the early 1900s. I wished you had gone into a slight bit more detail about the artists themselves, but there's a lot to cover there and it'd take way too much time to really get into the roots of country :). But this is by far one of the best genres in my opinion, because of the easy tempo and story-like lyrics, this down-to-earth style is something I love to jam out to. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in southwest Missouri and country music was a big part of my life growing up as well! I enjoyed listening to the pieces you selected. Now, I would consider myself more of an outlaw country fan, I read a little about the outlaw movement; it started in the 1970's and some of the stars were: Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. I enjoy the freedom of their lyrics and appreciate the "rawness" of the outlaw country artists today. I find country music to be relaxing and I love how the songs almost always tell a story! Great blog!
ReplyDeleteI looked at a couple other students blog posts and decided to read and comment on yours because I love country music and I didn't know much of it's history. Country music has really come a long way from the early 1900s. I grew up in Chicago, Illinois which is in the midwest so country is definitely a favorite there. My favorite aspect of country music is the genuine lyrics, they usually tell a story which is a lot different from something from the rap music genre.
ReplyDeleteI never really got into country all that much, but lately some of the songs I've heard have been growing on me. One thing to maybe consider about the first country song is how simple the melody is, but how that adds to how great the song is, because then it is easy to sing along to and replicate, it makes you feel like more of a part of the song. In my opinion, I liked the music a lot, and agree with your statements about it!
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