Video: Hank Williams singing I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, written and recorded in 1949 But in his short, troubled life he wrote hundreds of beautiful and powerful songs, many of which have become country-music standards like Lovesick Blues, Cold Cold Heart and I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. Hank drank too much, had a difficult relationship with his wife Audrey, and died young at 29. Working-class people could relate to these songs, especially those of country music's greatest singer-songwriter Hank Williams. Honky tonk bands usually included acoustic and pedal steel guitars, fiddle, stand-up bass and drums, and the songs were often about loneliness, love, heartbreak and pain. Honky tonk first developed in the 1940s in working-class honky tonk bars near the oil fields of Texas.
He soon became known as the "man in black" because he wore black clothes instead of cowboy clothes, as did Roy Orbison who wore dark sunglasses as well to complete his look. Cash became one of country music's biggest artists in the 60s when he combined the sounds of rockabilly with those of honky tonk. Elvis had several rockabilly hits early in his career, as did Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. When singers like Elvis Presley heard this new mix of country music and R&B, they formed rockabilly bands with acoustic guitar, electric guitar, stand-up bass and drums. Another style called rockabilly developed when Western swing bands began playing R&B songs as well as country songs. Their music was a lively mix of Western country music and swing jazz, and one of the most popular bands was Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys. Western swing bands used amplified instruments like pedal steel guitar to create music loud enough to be heard in large dance halls. Meanwhile, a style of Western dance music called Western swing became popular in Texas, Oklahoma and California. Some country music instruments (front, left to right) mandolin, guitar, banjo, dobro guitar, with stand-up bass behind. They renamed the genre "Country and Western music" and began dressing their musicians in cowboy clothes. Singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers became huge country-music stars, and Nashville executives decided the cowboy image was better for country music than the hillbilly image of old-time music. Western music became popular in the 1930s and 40s when singing cowboys began appearing in Hollywood cowboy movies called "Westerns". This style often had horse-like clip-clop rhythms and songs about lovesick cowboys and gun-fighting outlaws. Listeners heard old-time music as well as another style called Western music. It was broadcast from Nashville, Tennessee, which had become the centre of the country-music business. One of the most popular programs was a live country-music variety show called the "Grand Ole Opry". Country Music 1930 - 1960īefore television, American families often sat together and listened to the radio. He often used a vocal technique called yodelling, and his first hit record, Blue Yodel, sold nearly half a million copies in 1927. He also heard old-time music and folk songs and combined all these styles in his own songs.
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Jimmie was taught how to play guitar and sing blues and work chants by African Americans in railroad gangs in which he worked.
Jimmie Rodgers, another of country music's earliest stars, was recorded at the same recording sessions as the Carters. Photo: Victor Talking Machine Company / Public Domain Illustrated top right: The Carter Family in 1927, with Maybelle playing guitar and Sarah playing autoharp. Songs like Can The Circle Be Unbroken (By and By) and Wildwood Flower became hit records, and the Carter Family became the first stars of country music. Carter collected folk songs and also wrote new songs, and he sang them in harmony with his guitar-playing sister-in-law Maybelle and his wife Sarah, who also played autoharp. Old-time music was first recorded in the 1920s, with recordings of the Carter Family becoming the most popular. It was played on instruments like acoustic guitar, mandolin, autoharp, fiddle and the banjo. It developed in the southeastern states of the USA as a mix of folk music from the British Isles, church music and African American blues.
For other genres see Popular Music Genres.Ĭountry music was one of the first genres of modern American popular music, and old-time music was its earliest style. This page looks at the vocabulary of Country Music through its history, people and songs.
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