The earliest roots of country music are based in the folk songs from the British Isles. As these people settled in the South, where they were more isolated than their Northern counterparts, they continued to preserve the music of their home. However, it was significantly adapted to the social and ethnic influences of the other people in the south including African Americans, Mexican Americans, and immigrants from Poland, Germany, France, and other countries. For example, the cowboy song, “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie” was based upon the English song “Ocean Burial” and was adapted during cattle drives during the late 1800s.
Country music as we know it originated in the late 1910s with Appalachian fiddle players. However, it didn’t gain …show more content…
The structure and instruments were still similar to traditional country music, but the lyrics were more raw and dealt with things like divorce, cheating, drunkenness, and abuse. Ernest Tubb came to popularity during this time for his song “Walking the Floor Over You” and is actually the first country musician to perform at Carnegie Hall. Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell also contributed greatly to the popularity of honky-tonk.
In the 1950s, the Nashville Sound movement led to a smoother sounding song. It combined country with jazz, swing, and smooth storytelling. Popular artists of this subgenre included Jim Reeves, Jimmy Dean, Johnny Horton, and Eddie Arnold.
The grittier counterpart to the Nashville sound movement was the Bakersfield Sound movement. This also originated in the 1950s/1960s, but took on a distinctly more rock and roll sound with guitars and drums. Merle Haggard, Webb Pierce, and Buck Owens were the greatest contributors to the Bakersfield Sound. Buck Owens recorded “Act Naturally” which was re-recorded later by the Beatles and is often called the Baron of Bakersfield. Beginning during the late 1960s and continuing through to the mid-1970s, Outlaw country was the next big movement in country music. It featured singers like Willie Nelson, David Allan Coe, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris, Jessi Colter, and Tanya Tucker. The biggest event leading to the development of the outlaw movement was when Waylon Jennings got independent recording rights and began recording songs that did not follow the formula for Nashville