How Did Country Music Develop

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Emerging from the southern states of the USA, country music was one of the earliest genres in modern American history. The birthplace of country, or early folk music, was in Bristol, Tennessee. This developing style is a mix of folk music from the British Isles, church hymns, and African American blues. By the early 1900s, the recording industry was booming and brought about many new talents. In 1927, Ralph Peer of Victor Records noticed that most musicians had to travel to New York to make their debut, therefore, he took recording to the talent of Bristol, Tennessee in hopes of finding “hillbilly” musicians. His scouting was successful, and he signed record deals with the Carter Family from Virginia and Jimmie Rodgers of North Carolina. In their recordings, instruments such as the acoustic guitar, mandolin, autoharp, fiddle, and banjo were present, however, Jimmie Rodgers used a stunning vocal technique called yodelling as well. The Carter Family and Jimmie became the first stars of country music, and composed hit songs later that year such as Can The Circle Be Unbroken, Wildwood Flower, and Blue Yodel. …show more content…
The program was broadcast from Nashville, Tennessee, the star city for old-time music, and later led to the development of Western and Texas country. Western country is the most popular, and has even put a stereotype on other types of country as this style tells stories about lovesick cowboys and outlaws. Nashville producers decided that the cowboy portrayal was better for business than the hillbilly image of old-time music, and even dressed their artists in cowboy clothing after renaming the genre “Country and Western music”. From this music arose country movies and dances by 1940; singing cowboys were given their big break in Hollywood films called “Westerns”, and Western swing became popular for dancing in Texas, Oklahoma, and

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