Welcome to another (hopefully) exciting edition of Music Through the (p)Ages. This week we’ll be going back into rural areas and exploring a bit of country music as we progress through this very diverse musical world.
Country music has a distinct sound because of its acoustic background. Acoustic guitars are not only a must for this music, but the only required instrumentation. This stemmed back from its origins, where, depending on the culture, guitars, fiddles, and banjos were the most common instrument. However, country music had just started growing as jazz hit the spotlight, so naturally you can hear many influences between the musical styles in some songs.
In order to give you a real sense of the beginning of country music, you should listen to Southern Flavor by The Bluegrass Boys. They were around to help country music gain its popularity, and nothing can give you a better sense of where it started.
As country music developed, it became known for its ability to tell a story. Country singers could take any story and bring it alive through the simple vocals, guitars, rhythms, and sometimes even wind instruments! The perfect example of this is Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash.
Naturally, as the music developed through the ages, there were many branches that crossed over into multiple other genres. A particular one to note is the Country Rock genre, because both country and rock were stealing the stage around the same time. Songs like Hotel California by The Eagles can be clearly heard as a combination of the two styles, growing on the momentum of both styles and reaching great popularity.
It was about this time when country music split into two main paths. Some country artists decided that rather than mixing more with popular music, they would take it more back to traditional country music. Songs like Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks brought back the more traditional country sound, keeping touches of pop music, and created the country music of today.
While this was happening, country pop music burst onto the scene. It still held to its roots with the acoustic guitar being forefront, and the story being key, but with taking many of the elements of modern pop music to create a very popular genre. Taylor Swifts’s Our Song is the perfect example, showing the face of modern country music.
And that, my friends, is the wide world of country music. Every turn of the musical development was met with new and exciting styles of music, all coming together under the common instrument of the Acoustic Guitar. Songs can range from love affairs, to a red solo beer cup, and still manage to capture the audience with its music. This is truly an amazing style of music.
Stick around for next week, when we wrap everything up with a wild step into the unknown world of contemporary music. Until then, keep your passion alive!
Leave a Reply