How to Appreciate Country Music

Country music evolved in the 1920s to feed the growing radio and phonograph markets. It's a combination of African-American musical styles - like the blues - and the ballads and spiritual songs brought from England and Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• CD Players
• Best Of The Best Of The Carter Family CD
• Elvis: Artist Of The Century CD Set
• Essential Jimmie Rodgers CD
• Live At The Grand Ole Opry CD
• Pickin' On Garth Brooks CD
• The Essential Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys CD
• Wynonna Judd: Can't Nobody Love You (Like I Do) CD
• Country Music CDs

1. Pay close attention to the stories. Country music is a storytelling medium.

2. Realize that the new Southern settlers suffered the vagaries of an existence centered around agriculture. They translated the everyday concerns of their rural life into their music.

3. Know that country music spread beyond the home and local church through medicine shows, minstrel shows and vaudeville in the late 19th century. From this, country musicians learned staging and promotion techniques and used them to get their music noticed.

4. Listen to recordings made by the two most important acts in country music - Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.

5. Familiarize yourself with the history of the Grand Ole Opry.

6. Listen to and read the biographies of the artists that defined each decade.

7. Know that Bill Monroe began playing in the bluegrass style and instituted it as a branch of country music.

8. Familiarize yourself with Elvis Presley. He synthesized gospel, country and blues - and he changed country music forever.

Tips & Warnings

• The country sound of the '30s and '40s was defined by Roy Acuff, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and Bob Wills.
• Hank Williams developed a specific musical style in the 1940s known as honky-tonk.
• Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold epitomize the slick sounds that came out of Nashville recording studios in the 1950s.
• Patsy Cline combined the polished production techniques of the Nashville sound with the musical content of honky-tonk music in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
• Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard combined honky-tonk, Southern rock and outlaw country.

on 12/30/2005 Nowadays, country isn't the type of music that it was 20 years ago. It has more of a rock side to it. Take Big & Rich for an example, half of their songs are more southern rock. I'd say they're actually mocking original country music.

on 11/22/2005 The other tips are excellent. Start with the old guys...Hank Williams, Bob Wills and so forth. Much of today's country is not really country, but country pop. It's like Britney Spears or N'Sync compared to Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones. You can't really compare them at all. One major artist to explore is Gram Parsons, the father of y'all-ternative/Americana and the inspiration for many of today's young artists.

on 11/22/2005 When you listen to a country song, close your eyes and listen to the way the words and phrases move up and down. When you hear that, you aren't just listening to the music, but feeling it.

on 11/22/2005 Just listen to the lyrics - the songs are about everyday life. I really enjoy listening to country music. My fav song is Toby Keith, "How Do You Like Me Now?!" Be sure to catch some of the country music videos!

on 11/22/2005 Try artists that are more Americana than Country first to see if you really enjoy it. If you like that music, you will probably like more basic country. I recommend artists like Steve Earl or Jimmy Buffet to start off with.