George Strait, better known as the King of Country Music, has been in the country music industry for almost forty years (Hazighurst 12). His hobbies include skiing, golf, fishing, hunting and steer-roping. He has recorded around 280 songs and has released 28 albums. He has become one of the most widespread country music singers to this day. Despite coming from a tough home, he never let that affect him or his ability to be any less than what he knew he could be. He began a long time ago and is still currently going steady today. George became popular in the spring of 1981 when he released his first single, “Unwound.” Strait has more than sixty number one hits, more than anyone else in history does. George Strait has opened the eyes for country …show more content…
The song talks about how traditional country music was on the downfall and country pop was up and coming. The lyrics compare the country pop to “an awful murder down on Music Row.” Music Row is an area in Nashville, Tennessee that is considered to be the center of the country music industry. Alan Jackson and George Strait both express their concerns for veteran artists such as Hank Williams, George Jones, and Merle Haggard who songs were not played on country music radio anymore. The artists were nowhere near as popular as George and Alan, so their arguments were not being heard and taken into consideration. That is when George and Alan stepped in. They were in their prime, so when they recorded and sang the song, people were shocked, and it brought attention to the fact other artists were being forgotten about. Then in 2006 when older artists started being forgotten about again, Dierks Bentley and George Jones recorded another version of the song to call people’s attention back to what was happening. Even to this day younger artists are bumping out older ones with their new country pop. Uses of drums and rock ‘n’ roll guitars have replaced the more contemporary and traditional instruments such as steel guitars and fiddles. Strait started a revolution when he recorded that song that still affected up until 2009 when Cletus T. Judd and Daryle Singletary made a parody of the song and called it “Merger on Music Row”. They recorded that to state that music piracy had taken all profits away from country music. Strait influenced country music in more ways than he ever thought