Portal:Country Music/Intro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Country music, the first half of Billboard's country and western music category, is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, blues, gospel music, hokum, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s so that often Americana is substituted for some roots mixtures of the genres. 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.

In the Southwestern United States a different mix of ethnic groups from Mexico, the British Isles, Germany, and the Czech Republic created the music that became the Western music of the term Country Western.

Mainstream Country music has produced two of the top selling solo artists of all time. Elvis Presley, "The Hillbilly Cat," appeared on the Louisiana Hayride for three years, went on to help define rock ‘n’ roll, and was nicknamed "The King". Garth Brooks, except for a short foray into non-country near the end of his recording career, recorded and performed country music and is one top selling solo artist. (read more . . . )