As one of our first posts, I thought it might be helpful to give a little background history about the progression and changes of country music. My information was taken from a chapter entitled A brief history of Country Music from an online book called History of Popular Music by Piero Scaruffi published in 2005 and a website dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of Australian country music written by John Minson and Max Ellis, which was also published in 2005.
Before the 1920’s “country music artists” were known as comedians and musicians. In the late 1920’s “country music artists” started being known as hillbilly artists in the southern region of the United States. The first stars of the hillbilly genre were members of the Carter Family in 1926 (first recorded in 1927). Over time, they wrote 300 songs. The hillbilly genre was broken up into two different groups, the hillbilly and the mountain music. The hillbilly group used guitars and were made up of black people, while the mountain group used fiddles and banjos and the members of this group were white. Both of these groups were from the southern states. In the 1930s, the term hillbilly became a derogatory word. Therefore, a new title, country and western, was created for all white southern music. During this time, the region of country music started to expand to the southwest and then later to the northern states. A subtitle for the southwestern music, honky-tonk and western swing, was created. This type of music originally had a jazz influence, but later had a de-emphasis of brass and reeds and switched to dancehall orchestras (drums, horns, electric guitar). This style of music became very popular at the end of the prohibition era. At the same time the country and western music was forming, another subgroup of country music, bluegrass, was starting to become popular. The bluegrass music stayed true to the mountain style of music (banjos, fiddles, rhythmic guitar). Bluegrass acts put more emphasis on the vocals rather than the instruments, which caused a huge innovation of a new generation. During this time, Roy Acuff became the first star of Nashville. Roy Acuff turned country music into a business in the United States, as well as a nationwide business. However, it was still largely not known. In 1942 country music became more well known because Billboard introduced country music into a column, which was then followed by hillbilly songs in 1944. During the 1940s-1960s, the post-war generation especially, created the urban side of country music. This came about from the folksingers which did not have much in common with country music, but it catered to the people in the bigger cities. By the end of World War II, several studios had been set up in Nashville. The CMA (‘Country Music Disc Jockeys’ Association) was created in 1954. By 1961, 81 radio stations devoted to country music had been established and by 1966 there were 328. From this point forward, country music continued to grow in the United States. The role of country music in the history of the United States is very important because it has had a “profound impact on the American subconscious: it provided the American nation with identity” (Scaruffi 2005). “As it developed from the 1920s to the 1960s, it simply continued to emphasize that “American” element, progressively removing the European elements: it sounded less and less like the English ballads and the Irish dances that originated it, and more and more like something completely new” (Scaruffi 2005).
Robert Lane of New Zealand is considered to be the “Father of Australian Country Music”. His first recording session was in 1936. Country music continued to develop after his success and took to the television in the 1960s. In 1965, country music found its new champion, Hoedown. Hoedown was a country music program on Tamworth’s Radio 2TM. Tamworth then became Australia’s Country Music Capital in 1969. During the last two decades of the 20th century, country music in Australia saw a tremendous growth. A new image in the 1990s shifted country music more into the mainstream. Australia also created their own CMA, CMAA (Country Music Association of Australia), in 1992. “Australian country music has changed and developed over the decades, altering, and adapting as our society grows”(Minson 2005).
-Natalie Boyce
