You will discover multitudes of music genres in today’s musical world. Country music is just one of my favorites and so I thought I would provide a little bit of country history to the forefront. If you don’t know a great deal about country music suffice it to say that every country songs tell a story. It has been said most of these songs are about our lives, who we are and where we began. Country music made a couple of the most notable selling solo musical artists ever in the USA. Elvis Presley’s early career was certainly country hillbilly music and then he went on 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 popular show in Las Vegas. That’s quite a remarkable start. Going back in history, however, we find that Country music extends back to the early 1920′s in America and has its roots in classic folk music, Celtic music, Blues, Bluegrass and Gospel music. Early country music was termed “Hillbilly” music but the verbiage changed to Country Music in the early 1940′s. In its beginnings, Country music was pure American; the country music crowd was American, its artists were American and its tone was American.

1925 brought in the era of the “Singing Cowboy” when the very first cowboy song was recorded by Carl T. Sprague. The full rise in popularity of the singing cowboy wasn’t really defined 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 another person presented the singing voice. But he was off and away to a great movie career. With the introduction of Television to the American people, the time of the singing cowboy movies ended in the 1950′s. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers continued their roles as “singing cowboys” in a few 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 changes 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 took over as Country music stars. Quite a few of the country songs recorded in the 1960′s crossed over to the Pop charts adding 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 numerous songs for country artists, however, he also wrote “Me and Bobby McGee” which Janis Joplin made popular before her early death. An extremely popular Elvis song “Kentucky Rain” was composed by Eddie Rabbitt; another excellent country music songwriter. Eddie Rabbitt also wrote songs for films such as the title song for “Every Which Way but Loose” starring Clint Eastwood. The 70′s and 80′s brought different changes to the country music scene. With the recognition 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 popular among many more in the country music field. Everybody wanted to be a cowboy. As the times have changed, country music has reinvented itself to fit to these changing times. To name some, vocalists 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.

In closing, you should listen closely to the words of the country music songs…hear the stories about life and discover if you’re able to find a small amount of yourself and your life in these excellent songs.