Country Music The Evergreen Style

Submitted by: Felix Lehmann

Just like the beauty of a scenic country side can never become old or boring no matter how often you look at it, so also, country music is as evergreen as when it was first introduced in the 19th century. Country music or country and western is a blend of popular music forms that were originally sung in the southern United States and in the Appalachian mountains. Country music stems from a mixture of traditional folk music, Celtic music, gospel music and old time music. With every passing year it ahs been steadily evolving but the soothing rhythm of the old days is still an essential part of it.

When country music began, the fiddle was the most commonly used instrument since it was easy to carry around and inexpensive to make. The banjo and guitar came later. The accordion and piano didn t make an appearance in country music till about the 1930s. Drums were brought in only as late as the 1960s. Today of course there is much use of sophisticated instruments like synthesizers and electric guitars but even with the use of this modern technology the songs have a good old days feeling to it which is an important part of country music

In the early 20th century the cowboy became an image of everything patriotic and noble and so when movies began to be made the cowboy was a favorite hero. Before long songs were incorporated into movies that pictured cowboys singing with a guitar. In reality cowboys did sing but used less bulky instruments like the harmonica. Soon these movies came to be called westerns and greatly helped to give momentum to the gaining popularity of country music. The term country music only began to be used in the 1940s. Up till then this genre of music was called hillybilly music but soon this term began to seem degrading.

Country music has its tradition in the olden days of story telling, when lack of knowledge of reading and writing made people pas down advice tradition and folklore in the form of songs Each song is alive with tales of the hardships of life, the losses of love and so on. They even became journalistic in nature as they began to narrate the major goings on of the country political and otherwise in the form of song

Country music has produced two of the most famous musicians in the world – Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks. Elvis once known as the Hillbilly cat went on to play a very major role in the introduction of rock and roll music. Garth Brooks, a contemporary country artist, is one of the top selling solo artists. Today many pop and rock stars have ventured to record one or more country numbers the more famous among them being Richard Marx, Allison Kraus and Bon Jovi.

In this age of constant change, the good old music has not lost its effect after all these decades. Long live country music.

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