Country Music, An American Roots Genre
 |
| Gene Autry |
Country music has come a long way since the days of the Carters and Fiddlin’ John Carson. The genre based on Appalachian Folk has been transformed many times over, and through creating a timeline of sub-genres and key events we can understand how Blue Yodel, as shown below, turned into Old Town Road. Victor Records was the first recording company to take on a dedicated country artist– Eck Robertson in 1922. His record was met with minimal success but nonetheless inspired the studio to sign on Jimmie Rodgers, now known as the Father of Country Music, in 1927. This move and the company signing The Carter Family have been identified as the moment country music was born. During this era, the country was headed toward the Great Depression, and many Americans found it easy to bond over their hard times. Key components of this early rendition of country music are yodeling and the fiddle, borrowing from folk music. By the 1930s, Hollywood stars, such as Gene Autry began noticing the genre and decided to take their own spin on it. Western Swing and Honky Tonk sub-genres were born, as stars such as Bob Wills began adding steel guitars and saxophones into traditional country music. This sub-genre had a much wider appeal than the previous incarnation and solidified the genre in the pop culture landscape. Countering this move, Bluegrass was born to reinvigorate the spirit of folk back into the genre. Bill Monroe and his band, The Bluegrass Boys, inspired this movement, which later adopted their namesake. This folksy, down-to-earth tone began to wane in profitability and as long as country music has existed, there has been a yin and yang battle under the surface. Breakout star, Hank Williams breathed new life into the genre when he established Nashville as the country music capital of the world. This was the largest shift in the genre, moving away from the Blues-inspired, hard-times-focused lyrics and veering nearly into pop music territory. Many “true” country artists saw this transition as a major cash grab, completely void of the genre’s original purpose. This scuffle resulted in the birth of alternative styles of country music– The Bakersfield Sound and Outlaw Music.
Along with the small-town artists in California, artists in West Texas began forming their own counter-country movement. Dubbing themselves the Outlaws, artists such as Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings decided to go even harder than the Bakersfield men. They adopted a much more Rock and Roll image and refused to conform to the standards set by previous generations of country artists. Unlike the Bakersfield artists, who wanted to reinvigorate the spirit of the genre through Blues-like Willie Nelson
themes, the Outlaws threw caution to the wind, writing songs on whatever subjects they pleased. The conservative nature and strict formulas popularized by the Nashville Sound were distasteful to them, and so they built their sub-genre on an anarchist view of what makes country music. The nickname “outlaw” stems from the goal of these artists to break free of the confines being creating in Nashville. Country was becoming a very gate kept genre by who the Westerners deemed elitists over in Tennessee. Nelson and Jennings pioneered this genre with some of their biggest hits, such as Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys. Their music is much more in line with what we would regard as modern country music, telling stories and incorporating aspects of their lifestyles, rather than the previous, much more blue lyrics. The songs were more playful than the other subgenres, taking risks and pioneering the subject matters that would soon become synonymous with country music. It is much more akin to Rock and Roll, and therefore Black American’s music stylings, than the previous country artists that were heavily inspired by their Western European roots.
Both the Bakersfield Sound and the Outlaw Movement were counterculture movements within the country music genre. After the 1970’s filled with rougher and grittier subcultures, the 1980’s came in swing with a return to the much more profitable Neo-Country, also known as the Urban Cowboy sub-genre. Stars such as Dolly Parton and George Strait had a pop-star appeal to the that the Outlaws could not compete with. This pop-country fusion has prevailed since the income of the 21st century, and any counterculture country sub-genres have made little impact in the grand scheme of the genre. Compared to their poor commercial success and unremarkable lasting power their influence can be seen in both country music and other genres. They famously brought a variation of instruments into a genre previously striped down. Even greater than its influence on its own genre, many rock artists have credited Bakersfield artists and Outlaws as being some of their biggest inspirations, such as The Eagles, Elvis Presley, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their pushback against conformity made a lasting impression on future generations of artists in ways that more commercially successful artists could not have.
References
Hi Kyleigh! your blog was very interesting! I like to listen to country music when I'm in my thoughts. My favorite country artist is Morgan Wallen.
ReplyDeleteHi Kyleigh! I really like your blog. My dad is into country music so we visit country music halls/museums sometimes and I’ve learned or heard of the people you mentioned in your blog.
ReplyDeleteHey, Kyleigh! This blog post was so enlightening and informative for me! As someone who has struggled to get into any country music, I have had little interest in the stories and people behind it. Your blog post was engaging and interesting, with pictures and examples that helped me immerse myself in a world I had not looked into before. Great job!
ReplyDelete