Country music
Country music
Stylistic
origins
Appalachian folk music, Gospel,
and Anglo-Celtic music
Cultural
origins
Early 20th century Southern
United States, esp. Appalachia,
(Tennessee, Virginia, West
Virginia, and Kentucky)
Typical
instruments
Guitar - Fiddle - Steel Guitar
Piano - Dobro - Harmonica -
Bass - Drums - Mandolin - Banjo
Mainstream
popularity
1920s - Present
High in USA, Australia and
Canada as well as Poland
Medium in United Kingdom,
Ireland, and New Zealand
Low in Asia, Latin America, and
mainland Europe.
Derivative
forms
Bluegrass, Dansband, Rock and
Roll, Rock music, Country rock,
Southern rock
Subgenres
Bakersfield sound - Bluegrass - Close harmony -
Honky tonk - Jug band - Lubbock sound -
Nashville sound - Neotraditional country -
Outlaw country - Red Dirt - Texas country
Fusion genres
Alternative country - Country blues - Country
rock - Psychobilly - Rockabilly - Cowpunk -
Country-rap - Country pop - Country soul -
Southern soul - Western Swing
Other topics
Country musicians - List of years in country
music
Country music (or country and western) is
a blend of popular musical forms originally
found in the Southern United States and the
Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in tradi-
tional folk music, Celtic music, gospel music,
and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the
1920s.[1]
The term country music began to be used
in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly
music was deemed to be degrading, and the
term was widely embraced in the 1970s,
while country and Western has declined in
use since that time, except in the United
Kingdom and Ireland, where it is still com-
monly used.[1]
In the Southwestern United States a dif-
ferent mix of ethnic groups created the music
that became the Western music of the term
country and Western. The term "country mu-
sic" is used today to describe many styles and
subgenres.
Country music has produced two of the
top selling solo artists of all time. Elvis Pres-
ley, who was known early on as “the Hillbilly
Cat” and was a regular on the radio program
Louis