Country music

===Third generation (1950s–1960s)===
{{See also|1950s in music|1960s in music}}

By the early 1950s, a blend of western swing, country boogie, and honky tonk was played by most country bands, a mixture which followed in the footsteps of [[Gene Autry]], [[Lydia Mendoza]], [[Roy Rogers]], and [[Patsy Montana]]. Western music, influenced by the cowboy ballads, [[New Mexico music|New Mexico]], [[Texas country music|Texas country]] and [[Tejano music]] rhythms of the [[Southwestern United States]] and [[Northern Mexico]], reached its peak in popularity in the late 1950s, most notably with the song "[[El Paso (song)|El Paso]]", first recorded by [[Marty Robbins]] in September 1959. Western music's influence would continue to grow within the country music sphere, western musicians like [[Michael Martin Murphey]], [[New Mexico music]] artists [[Al Hurricane]] and [[Antonia Apodaca]], [[Tejano music]] performer [[Little Joe (singer)|Little Joe]], and even folk revivalist [[John Denver]], all first rose to prominence during this time. This western music influence largely kept the music of the [[American folk music revival|folk revival]] and [[folk rock]] from influencing the country music genre much, despite the similarity in instrumentation and origins (see, for instance, [[the Byrds]]' negative reception during their appearance on the ''Grand Ole Opry''). The main concern was largely political: most folk revival was largely driven by progressive activists, a stark contrast to the culturally conservative audiences of country music. John Denver was perhaps the only musician to have major success in both the country and folk revival genres throughout his career, later only a handful of artists like [[Burl Ives]] and Canadian musician [[Gordon Lightfoot]] successfully made the crossover to country after folk revival fell out of fashion. During the mid-1950s a new style of country music became popular, eventually to be referred to as rockabilly.<ref>{{cite book| last = Morrison| first = Craig| title = Go Cat Go!: Rockabilly Music and Its Makers| date = September 1, 1996| publisher = University of Illinois Press| isbn = 978-0-252-02207-4| page = 28 }}</ref>
[[File:Bill Haley and the Comets1956.jpg|thumb|[[Bill Haley & His Comets]] in 1956 ]]
In 1953, the first all-country radio station was established in [[Lubbock, Texas]].<ref name=hamilton>{{Cite book| publisher = Princeton University Press| last = Hamilton| first=Shane |title = Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy| pages = 187–232| chapter = Agrarian Trucking Culture and Deregulatory Capitalism, 1960–80| date = 2008| jstor = j.ctt7t2vg.12| isbn = 9780691135823}}</ref> The music of the 1960s and 1970s targeted the American working class, and [[History of the trucking industry in the United States|truckers]] in particular. As country radio became more popular, trucking songs like the 1963 hit song ''Six Days on the Road'' by [[Dave Dudley]] began to make up their own subgenre of country. These revamped songs sought to portray American truckers as a "new folk hero", marking a significant shift in sound from earlier country music. The song was written by actual truckers and contained numerous references to the trucker culture of the time like "ICC" for [[Interstate Commerce Commission]] and "little white pills" as a reference to [[amphetamines]]. [[Starday Records]] in Nashville followed up on Dudley's initial success with the release of ''Give Me 40 Acres'' by the [[Willis Brothers]].<ref name=hamilton />

====Rockabilly====
{{Main|Rockabilly}}
[[File:Johnny Cash Promotional Photo.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Johnny Cash]]]]
Rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s; one of the first rock and roll superstars was former western yodeler [[Bill Haley]], who repurposed his Four Aces of Western Swing into a rockabilly band in the early 1950s and renamed it the [[Bill Haley & His Comets|Comets]]. Bill Haley & His Comets are credited with two of the first successful rock and roll records, "[[Crazy Man, Crazy]]" of 1953 and "[[Rock Around the Clock]]" in 1954.<ref>[http://www.rockabillyhall.com/BillHaley.html Bill Haley's biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527231722/http://www.rockabillyhall.com/BillHaley.html |date=May 27, 2010 }} at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Retrieved June 20, 2020.</ref>

1956 could be called the year of [[rockabilly]] in country music. Rockabilly was an early form of [[rock and roll]], an upbeat combination of [[blues]] and country music.{{sfn |Gilliland |1969 |loc=shows 7–8}} The number two, three and four songs on ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard's]]'' charts for that year were [[Elvis Presley]], "[[Heartbreak Hotel]]"; [[Johnny Cash]], "[[I Walk the Line]]"; and [[Carl Perkins]], "[[Blue Suede Shoes]]". Reflecting this success, George Jones released a rockabilly record that year under the pseudonym "Thumper Jones", wanting to capitalize on the popularity of rockabilly without alienating his traditional country base.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+Country+Songs&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1956 |title=Hot Country Songs 1956 |magazine=Billboard |access-date=February 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061020160136/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot%2BCountry%2BSongs&g=Year-end%2BSingles&year=1956 |archive-date=October 20, 2006 }}</ref> Cash and Presley placed songs in the top 5 in 1958 with No. 3 "Guess Things Happen That Way/Come In, Stranger" by Cash, and No. 5 by Presley "Don't/I Beg of You."<ref>[http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+Country+Songs&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1958 Billboard.com] ''Billboard.com''  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105115329/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot%20Country%20Songs&g=Year-end%20Singles&year=1958 |date=November 5, 2012 }}</ref> Presley acknowledged the influence of [[rhythm and blues]] artists and his style, saying "The colored folk been singin' and playin' it just the way I'm doin' it now, man for more years than I know." Within a few years, many rockabilly musicians returned to a more mainstream style or had defined their own unique style.

Country music gained national television exposure through ''[[Ozark Jubilee]]'' on ABC-TV and radio from 1955 to 1960 from [[Springfield, Missouri]]. The program showcased top stars including several rockabilly artists, some from the [[Ozarks]]. As Webb Pierce put it in 1956, "Once upon a time, it was almost impossible to sell country music in a place like New York City. Nowadays, television takes us everywhere, and country music records and sheet music sell as well in large cities as anywhere else."<ref>Shulman, Art "Dynamo – Country Style" (1956), ''TV Guide'', p, 28</ref>
 
The [[Country Music Association]] was founded in 1958, in part because numerous country musicians were appalled by the increased influence of rock and roll on country music.<ref name="RollingstoneDeath">{{cite news |last=Moore |first=Bobby |title=Mac Wiseman, Bluegrass Icon, Dead at 93 |url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-xB7o4kknsiGkHegNeyZ-Q/ |access-date=February 25, 2019 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=February 25, 2019}}</ref>

====The Nashville and countrypolitan sounds====
{{Main|Nashville sound}}

Beginning in the mid-1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the Nashville sound turned country music into a multimillion-dollar industry centered in [[Nashville, Tennessee]]. Under the direction of producers such as [[Chet Atkins]], [[Bill Porter (sound engineer)|Bill Porter]], [[Paul Cohen (record producer)|Paul Cohen]], [[Owen Bradley]], [[Bob Ferguson (music)|Bob Ferguson]], and later [[Billy Sherrill]], the sound brought country music to a diverse audience and helped revive country as it emerged from a commercially fallow period. This subgenre was notable for borrowing from 1950s pop stylings: a prominent and smooth vocal, backed by a [[string section]] (violins and other orchestral strings) and vocal chorus. Instrumental soloing was de-emphasized in favor of trademark "licks". Leading artists in this genre included [[Jim Reeves]], [[Skeeter Davis]], [[Connie Smith]], [[the Browns]],{{sfn |Gilliland |1969 |loc=shows 10–11}} [[Patsy Cline]], and [[Eddy Arnold]]. The "slip note" piano style of session musician [[Floyd Cramer]] was an important component of this style.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.rockhall.com/inductees/floyd-cramer |title=Rockhall.com |publisher=Rockhall.com |access-date=February 1, 2011}}</ref> The Nashville Sound collapsed in mainstream popularity in 1964, a victim of both the [[British Invasion]] and the deaths of Reeves and Cline in separate airplane crashes. By the mid-1960s, the genre had developed into [[countrypolitan]]. Countrypolitan was aimed straight at mainstream markets, and it sold well throughout the later 1960s into the early 1970s. Top artists included [[Tammy Wynette]], [[Lynn Anderson]] and [[Charlie Rich]], as well as such former "hard country" artists as [[Ray Price (musician)|Ray Price]] and [[Marty Robbins]]. Despite the appeal of the Nashville sound, many traditional country artists emerged during this period and dominated the genre: [[Loretta Lynn]], [[Merle Haggard]], [[Buck Owens]], [[Porter Wagoner]], [[George Jones]], and [[Sonny James]] among them.

====Country-soul crossover====
{{Main|Country soul}}
In 1962, [[Ray Charles]] surprised the pop world by turning his attention to country and western music, topping the charts and rating number three for the year on ''Billboard's'' pop chart<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=The+Billboard+Hot+100&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1962 |title=Billboard Hot 100 1962 |magazine=Billboard |access-date=February 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109172855/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=The%2BBillboard%2BHot%2B100&g=Year-end%2BSingles&year=1962 |archive-date=January 9, 2010 }}</ref> with the "[[I Can't Stop Loving You]]" single, and recording the landmark album ''[[Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]]''.{{sfn |Gilliland |1969 |loc=show 16}}

====Bakersfield sound====
Another subgenre of country music grew out of hardcore honky tonk with elements of [[western swing]] and originated {{convert|112|mi|km|0}} north-northwest of Los Angeles in [[Bakersfield, California]], where many "[[Okie]]s" and other [[Dust Bowl]] migrants had settled. Influenced by one-time West Coast residents [[Bob Wills]] and [[Lefty Frizzell]], by 1966 it was known as the [[Bakersfield sound]]. It relied on electric instruments and amplification, in particular the [[Telecaster]] electric guitar, more than other subgenres of the country music of the era, and it can be described as having a sharp, hard, driving, no-frills, edgy flavor—hard guitars and honky-tonk harmonies.<ref name = hamilton /> Leading practitioners of this style were [[Buck Owens]], [[Merle Haggard]], [[Tommy Collins (country music)|Tommy Collins]], [[Dwight Yoakam]], [[Gary Allan]], and [[Wynn Stewart]], each of whom had his own style.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/haggard_merle/bio.jhtml |title=Merle Haggard: Biography |publisher=CMT |date=April 6, 1937 |access-date=February 1, 2011 |archive-date=April 6, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100406035328/http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/haggard_merle/bio.jhtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.buckowens.com/aboutbuck18.html Buckowens.com], Buck Owen's Crystal Palace: About Buck {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213024906/http://www.buckowens.com/aboutbuck18.html |date=December 13, 2013 }}</ref>

[[Ken Nelson (United States record producer)|Ken Nelson]], who had produced Owens and Haggard and [[Rose Maddox]] became interested in the trucking song subgenre following the success of ''Six Days on the Road'' and asked [[Red Simpson]] to record an album of trucking songs. Haggard's ''White Line Fever'' was also part of the trucking subgenre.<ref name=hamilton />