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Artists and StylesBy Shelly Fabian, About.com Guide to Country Music Here you will find information on the various styles of country music and some of the artists that fit that particular style of music.
Early Country Early country music was brought down from the Appalachian mountains, heavily influenced by the Celtic and Gaelic roots of the people in those "hollers." With simple arrangements and beautiful harmonies, it has also been called Mountain Music. It is performed primarily acoustic, with typical instruments including banjos and fiddles, with guitars and even the autoharp adding to this Celtic-Appalachian rooted music. Bluegrass While Jimmie Rodgers is considered the "Father" of Country Music, Bill Monroe is the Father of Bluegrass. He was simply a country singer whose distinct style lent itself a new label, which was taken from the name of his band, the Bluegrass Boys. That extremely distinctive style, most notably characterized by the style of banjo picking invented by Bluegrass Boy Earl Scruggs, sets it apart from its close cousin, Mountain Music. Bluegrass is a music of sharing, where every musician gets a chance to shine. You may first hear the melody on the mandolin, then on the dobro, then on the banjo, then the fiddle, and so on. Traditional Country As mountain music spread out of the mountains and the Grand Old Opry flourished, the music of the people settled into traditions, drawing its tone mostly from that old-time mountain music, updating it for newer audiences, and blending and merging styles. There were obviously hints of other styles and the later country music movements, but boil it all down to basics, and this is where you'll find the old fiddles, pedal steel, and guitar rhythms of solid, down-home, old-time Traditional Country music. Cowboy & Western Many artists didn't like the term "hillbilly," thinking that it portrayed negative cultural stereotypes. But "cowboy" implied romance, heroism, and bravery. By the mid 1930s, artists started wearing fancy outfits with fringe, boots, and cowboy hats. Some of the most well-known country stars, such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, were also seen on movie screens and television. Western/cowboy music is distinguished by rich harmonies, storytelling, swing and waltz rhythms, and very distinctive themes. Western Swing When you think of Western Swing, you think of Bob Wills. He combined elements of country, jazz, pop and blues music. He wanted to give people something to dance to. The music was in its heyday during World War II, combining the popular rowdy dancehall music with the western sound of the cowboy, making for a bouncy, joyous sound that practically demands getting out on the dance floor. Honky Tonk Honky-tonk music is the more simple "dance form" of western swing, a robust combination of plain cowboy music/themes with the bouncing dance steps that were filling dance halls all over the country. For those who didn't "swing with Bob" or "sway with Cole," this foot-stomping music was just the thing. Favored heavily by blue-collar, hard-working, hard-drinking plain folks, it is a powerful part of the Bakersfield and Texas music sound. Rockabilly There was a fairly distinct line between "white music" and "black music" in the mid-fifties when Elvis Presley walked into Sun Studios and was famously discovered. Blending the two styles, hill-billy country and delta and midland blues, created a new sound that, really, others had been making and Elvis just made famous - and mainstream. The actual rockabilly sound didn't last very long, rapidly turning into other styles and genres, and today tends to be thought of as a serious "retro" sound, but the impact it had on American music is undeniable. Nashville Sound During the 40's and into the 50's, some country artists made the crossover to the big band halls, blending their hill country sound with the ballroom orchestra tunes made popular by Glen Miller and other band leaders during the war years. The Nashville sound took typically honky-tonk and hillbilly singers and backed them with the lush sound of strings and horns to appeal to a wider audience, beginning the crossover phenomenon. Country Rock In the 70's rock came back to its roots, turning "rock" into a sound more country than country itself was since the incursion of the Nashville Sound. As early as the mid-60's there were rock groups dabbling in their country roots sound, including the Beatles and the Monkees; by the 70's it gave way to all-out "southern-fried" rock from groups like Michael Nesmith & the 1st National Band, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pure Prairie League, and the Marshall Tucker Band. Bakersfield Sound The Bakersfield sound really isn't very different from the honky-tonk sound, although it tends to rock a little more, but at its heart Bakersfield music is honky-tonk, that combination of swing and hillbilly to make for a dance music for the working man. Buck Owens brought it to a wide audience through the medium of television, and its effects can be seen on country music from Bakersfield to Austin. Outlaw "Outlaw" music came about as a direct result of the encroaching Nashville Sound. Artists who wanted to have their own arrangements and their own musicians balked at the heavy handed producers and orchestral backing that Nashville wanted in its "country," so they fought it at every level until Willie Nelson released his critically acclaimed [i]Red-Headed Stranger.[/I] The popularity of that disc brought about the tongue-in-cheek title [i]Wanted: The Outlaws![/I] and a movement was born. New Traditionalist The Outlaw movement carried country music into the 80's, then faded before the same pressures that continued to make the Nashville Sound king, although by this time it had been "mellowed" by the pop sounds of the 70's. In the early 90's the old country sound made a strong comeback, crashing onto the charts with as much power and force as the outlaws had in the decades before. Contemporary Country As in the 40's, a desire for crossover appeal shook up the late 90's and when new traditionalist Garth Brooks went "pop," he took all of country with him. Hitting the pop charts became as important, maybe even more so, than pleasing the country music listening audience, and music being called "country" with a sound sometimes like 70's pop, became all the rage. Texas Country Texas is where the original Outlaws came from, and that's where new outlaws are born. Still stubbornly sticking to the sound of music the way they like it being made, proud and independent and still combining those western swing sounds with a modern sensibility that makes it thoroughly and uniquely Texan, down to the bones. Alternative Country The alt-country movement blossomed out of the 70's country-rock sounds, with artists and bands who wanted to retain their independence and make the music the way they wanted it. While many alt- country artists could easily be defined in any of the other country music categories, their dogged determination to make the music they want without any limitations sets them as a group apart. |
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