Research: A Specific Genre

Country Music

Country music is a genre of American popular music that originated in Southern United States, in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1920's. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple harmonies accompanied by string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, and harmonicas. Atlanta's music scene played a major role in launching country's earliest recording artists. It would remain a major recording centre for two decades and a major performance centre for four decades, up to the first country music TV shows on local Atlanta stations in the 1950's. One effect of the Great depression was to reduce the number of records that could be sold. Radio became a popular source of entertainment, and "barn dance" shows featuring country music were started all over the South, as far north as Chicago, and as far west as California.

Country music and western music were frequently played together on the same radio stations, hence the term country and western music. Drums were scorned by early country musicians as being "too loud" and "not pure", but by 1935 Western swing big band leader Bob Wills had added drums to the Texas Playboys. Bob Wills was also one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar as well. A decade later (1948) Arthur Smith achieved top 10 US country chart success with his MGM Records recording of "Guitar Boogie", which crossed over to the US pop chart, introducing many people to the potential of the electric guitar.

During the mid-1950s a new style of country music became popular, eventually to be referred to as rockabilly. Rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950's, and 1956 could be called the year of rockability in country music. Rockabilly was a mixture of rock and roll and hillbilly music. During this period Elvis Presley converted over to country music. He played a huge role in the music industry during this time. The number two, three and four songs on Billboard's charts for that year were Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel", Johnny Cash, "I Walk the Line", and Carl Perkins, "Blue Suede Shoes".

Beginning in the mid-1950's, and reaching its peak during the early 1960's, the Nashville sound turned country music into a multimillion-dollar industry centered in Nashville, Tennessee. The sound brought country music to a diverse audience and helped revive country as it emerged from a commercially unsuccessful period. Despite the appeal of the Nashville sound, many traditional country artists emerged during this period and dominated the genre: Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens, and Sonny James among them. By the late 1960's, Western music, in particular the cowboy ballad, was in decline. Relegated to the "country and Western" genre by marketing agencies, popular Western recording stars released albums to only moderate success. Rock-and-roll dominated music sales, and Hollywood recording studios dropped most of their Western artists. The shift in country music production to Nashville also played a role, where the Nashville sound, country rock, and rockabilly music styles predominated over both "cowboy" artists.

One of the most commercially successful artists of the late 2000's has been singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. She first became widely known in 2006 when her debut single, "Tim McGraw," was released when she was age 16 and has been prolific in releasing both pop and country singles since then. Taylor released her first studio album, Taylor Swift, which spent 275 weeks on Billboard 200, one of the longest runs of any album on that chart. Taylor swift has definitely changed the way country music was perceived especially by younger generations. She has brought in more upbeat melodies and made the lyrics relatable to the modern 21 century audience. She also creates music videos that are appealing but still conform to the conventions of typical country music. The music videos tend to have a strong narrative aspect, are set in very stereotypical locations, such as rural areas. The mise-en-scene also tends to be very traditional or set in an elder generation, e.g. Victorian and the artist usually feature within the video.