Country music

===Fourth generation (1970s–1980s)===
{{See also|1970s in music#Country|l1=1970s in music § Country|1980s_in_music#Country_music|l2=1980s in music § Country}}

====Outlaw movement====
[[File:Willie Nelson Promotional Photo - cropped.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Willie Nelson]] (1974)]]
{{Main|Outlaw country}}
[[Outlaw country]] was derived from the traditional western, including [[Red dirt (music)|Red Dirt]], [[New Mexico music|New Mexico]], [[Texas country music|Texas country]], [[Tejano music|Tejano]], and [[honky-tonk]] musical styles of the late 1950s and 1960s. Songs such as the 1963 [[Johnny Cash]] popularized "[[Ring of Fire (song)|Ring of Fire]]" show clear influences from the likes of [[Al Hurricane]] and [[Little Joe (singer)|Little Joe]], this influence just happened to culminate with artists such as [[Ray Price (musician)|Ray Price]] (whose band, the "Cherokee Cowboys", included [[Willie Nelson]] and [[Roger Miller]]) and mixed with the anger of an alienated subculture of the nation during the period, a collection of musicians that came to be known as the [[outlaw country|outlaw movement]] revolutionized the genre of country music in the early 1970s.<ref name="Billboard 1974 TX">{{cite magazine | magazine=Billboard | date= September 7, 1974 | title= Giley, Rodriguez, Spread Fame Of Texas Country Music Heritage | publisher=[[Nielsen Business Media]], Inc. }}</ref><ref name="Billboard 1974 NM">{{cite magazine | magazine=Billboard | date= September 7, 1974 | title= Hurricane Enterprises in New Mexico | publisher= }}</ref> "After I left Nashville (the early 70s), I wanted to relax and play the music that I wanted to play, and just stay around Texas, maybe Oklahoma. Waylon and I had that outlaw image going, and when it caught on at colleges and we started selling records, we were O.K. The whole outlaw thing, it had nothing to do with the music, it was something that got written in an article, and the young people said, 'Well, that's pretty cool.' And started listening." (Willie Nelson)<ref>"The Roots of Country Music" Collectors Edition by ''Life'', September 1, 1994, page 72</ref> The term ''outlaw country'' is traditionally associated with [[Willie Nelson]], [[Jerry Jeff Walker]],<ref>[http://www.axs.com/jerry-jeff-walker-bringing-outlaw-country-to-bi]{{dead link|date=February 2017}}</ref> [[Hank Williams, Jr.]], Merle Haggard, [[Waylon Jennings]] and [[Joe Ely]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.outlawcountrycruise.com/lineup/view/76/|title=Joe Ely Band|last=Sixthman}}</ref> It was encapsulated in the 1976 album ''[[Wanted! The Outlaws]]''.

Though the outlaw movement as a cultural fad had died down after the late 1970s (with Jennings noting in 1978 that it had [[Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand|gotten out of hand]] and led to real-life legal scrutiny), many western and outlaw country music artists maintained their popularity during the 1980s by forming [[Supergroup (music)|supergroups]], such as [[The Highwaymen (country supergroup)|The Highwaymen]],<ref>{{cite web | last=Browne | first=David | title=Country Music's Counter-Culture 1980s Supergroup, The Highwaymen | website=AARP | date=January 30, 2018 | url=http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/music/info-2016/highwaymen-country-supergroup-documentary.html | access-date=December 23, 2020}}</ref> [[Texas Tornados]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Texas Tornados | website=TSHA | date=March 19, 2011 | url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-tornados | access-date=December 23, 2020}}</ref> and [[Bandido (supergroup)|Bandido]].<ref>{{AllMusic | id= al-hurricane-mn0001206671 | tab= biography | title= Biography of Al Hurricane}}</ref>

====Country pop====
{{Main|Country pop}}
[[File:John Denver 1975.JPG|thumb|upright|[[John Denver]] (1975)]]
Country pop or soft pop, with roots in the [[countrypolitan]] sound, folk music, and [[soft rock]], is a subgenre that first emerged in the 1970s. Although the term first referred to country music songs and artists that crossed over to top 40 radio, country pop acts are now more likely to cross over to [[adult contemporary music]]. It started with pop music singers like [[Glen Campbell]], [[Bobbie Gentry]], [[John Denver]], [[Olivia Newton-John]], [[Anne Murray]], [[B. J. Thomas]], [[the Bellamy Brothers]], and [[Linda Ronstadt]] having hits on the country charts. Between 1972 and 1975, singer/guitarist John Denver released a series of hugely successful songs blending country and folk-rock musical styles ("[[Rocky Mountain High]]", "[[Sunshine on My Shoulders]]", "[[Annie's Song]]", "[[Thank God I'm a Country Boy]]", and "[[I'm Sorry (John Denver song)|I'm Sorry]]"), and was named Country Music Entertainer of the Year in 1975. The year before, Olivia Newton-John, an Australian pop singer, won the "Best Female Country Vocal Performance" as well as the Country Music Association's most coveted award for females, "Female Vocalist of the Year". In response George Jones, Tammy Wynette, [[Jean Shepard]] and other traditional Nashville country artists dissatisfied with the new trend formed the short-lived "Association of Country Entertainers" in 1974; the ACE soon unraveled in the wake of Jones and Wynette's bitter divorce and Shepard's realization that most others in the industry lacked her passion for the movement.
[[File:Dolly Parton, 2011.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Dolly Parton]]]]

During the mid-1970s, [[Dolly Parton]], a successful mainstream country artist since the late 1960s, mounted a high-profile campaign to cross over to pop music, culminating in her 1977 hit "[[Here You Come Again]]", which topped the U.S. country singles chart, and also reached No. 3 on the pop singles charts. Parton's male counterpart, [[Kenny Rogers]], came from the opposite direction, aiming his music at the country charts, after a successful career in pop, rock and folk music with [[Kenny Rogers and the First Edition|the First Edition]], achieving success the same year with "[[Lucille (Kenny Rogers song)|Lucille]]", which topped the country charts and reached No. 5 on the U.S. pop singles charts, as well as reaching Number 1 on the British all-genre chart. Parton and Rogers would both continue to have success on both country and pop charts simultaneously, well into the 1980s. Country music propelled Kenny Rogers’ career, making him a three-time [[Grammy Awards|Grammy Award]] winner and six-time [[Country Music Association Awards]] winner. Having sold more than 50 million albums in the US, one of his Song "The Gambler," inspired several TV films, with Rogers as the main character.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Christina Maxouris and Alta Spells|title=Legendary country singer Kenny Rogers dies at 81|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/21/entertainment/kenny-rogers-country-singer-dies/index.html|access-date=November 1, 2021|website=CNN|date=March 21, 2020 }}</ref> Artists like [[Crystal Gayle]], [[Ronnie Milsap]] and [[Barbara Mandrell]] would also find success on the pop charts with their records. In 1975, author Paul Hemphill stated in the ''Saturday Evening Post'', "Country music isn't really country anymore; it is a hybrid of nearly every form of popular music in America."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Hemphill | first1 = Paul | year = 1975 | title = Nashville—Where It All Started | journal = [[Saturday Evening Post]] | volume = 247 | issue = 3| pages = 44–86 }}</ref>

During the early 1980s, country artists continued to see their records perform well on the pop charts. [[Willie Nelson]] and [[Juice Newton]] each had two songs in the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the early eighties: Nelson charted "[[Always on My Mind]]" (#5, 1982) and "[[To All the Girls I've Loved Before]]" (#5, 1984, a duet with [[Julio Iglesias]]), and Newton achieved success with "[[Queen of Hearts (Hank DeVito song)|Queen of Hearts]]" (#2, 1981) and "[[Angel of the Morning]]" (#4, 1981). Four country songs topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the 1980s: "[[Lady (Kenny Rogers song)|Lady]]" by [[Kenny Rogers]], from the late fall of 1980; "[[9 to 5 (Dolly Parton song)|9 to 5]]" by [[Dolly Parton]], "[[I Love a Rainy Night]]" by [[Eddie Rabbitt]] (these two back-to-back at the top in early 1981); and "[[Islands in the Stream (song)|Islands in the Stream]]", a duet by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers in 1983, a pop-country crossover hit written by Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb of the [[Bee Gees]]. Newton's "Queen of Hearts" almost reached No. 1, but was kept out of the spot by the pop ballad juggernaut "[[Endless Love (song)|Endless Love]]" by [[Diana Ross]] and [[Lionel Richie]].<ref>[http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_index.jsp Billboard.com], Historical Music Charts Archive. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110803173648/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_index.jsp |date=August 3, 2011 }}</ref> The move of country music toward neotraditional styles led to a marked decline in country/pop crossovers in the late 1980s, and only one song in that period—[[Roy Orbison]]'s "[[You Got It]]", from 1989—made the top 10 of both the ''Billboard'' [[Hot Country Songs|Hot Country Singles]]" and Hot 100 charts, due largely to a revival of interest in Orbison after his sudden death.<ref>Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944–2008," 2009.{{full citation needed|date=September 2023}}</ref><ref>Whitburn, Joel, "Top Pop Singles: 1955–2006," 2007</ref> The only song with substantial country airplay to reach number one on the pop charts in the late 1980s was "[[At This Moment]]" by [[Billy Vera]] and the Beaters, an R&B song with slide guitar embellishment that appeared at number 42 on the country charts from minor crossover airplay.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://qz.com/quartzy/1592928/old-town-road-is-only-the-third-country-song-in-30-years-to-make-it-to-make-it-to-no-1/|title="Old Town Road" is only the third country song in 30 years to make it to make it to number one|first1=Dan|last1=Kopf|website=Quartzy|date=April 11, 2019 }}</ref> The record-setting, multi-platinum group [[Alabama (American band)|Alabama]] was named Artist of the Decade for the 1980s by the Academy of Country Music.

====Country rock====
{{Main|Country rock}}
{{see also|Cowpunk}}
[[File:Eagles cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|A reunited [[Eagles (band)|Eagles]] in 2008]]

Country rock is a genre that started in the 1960s but became prominent in the 1970s. The late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres. In the aftermath of the [[British Invasion]], many desired a return to the "old values" of rock n' roll. At the same time there was a lack of enthusiasm in the country sector for Nashville-produced music. What resulted was a crossbred genre known as [[country rock]]. Early innovators in this new style of music in the 1960s and 1970s included [[Bob Dylan]], who was the first to revert to country music with his 1967 album ''[[John Wesley Harding]]''{{sfn |Gilliland |1969 |loc=show 54}} (and even more so with that album's follow-up, ''[[Nashville Skyline]]''), followed by [[Gene Clark]], Clark's former band [[the Byrds]] (with [[Gram Parsons]] on ''[[Sweetheart of the Rodeo]]'') and its spin-off [[the Flying Burrito Brothers]] (also featuring Gram Parsons), guitarist [[Clarence White]], [[Michael Nesmith]] ([[the Monkees]] and the [[First National Band]]), the [[Grateful Dead]], [[Neil Young]], [[Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen|Commander Cody]], [[the Allman Brothers Band]], [[Charlie Daniels]], [[the Marshall Tucker Band]], [[Poco (band)|Poco]], [[Buffalo Springfield]], [[Stephen Stills]]' band [[Manassas (band)|Manassas]] and [[Eagles (band)|Eagles]], among many, even the former folk music duo [[Ian & Sylvia]], who formed [[Great Speckled Bird (band)|Great Speckled Bird]] in 1969. The Eagles would become the most successful of these country rock acts, and their compilation album ''[[Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)]]'' remains the second-best-selling album in the US with 29&nbsp;million copies sold.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6844102/glenn-frey-eagles-biggest-billboard-hits|title= Glenn Frey & Eagles' Biggest Billboard Hits |date=January 18, 2016|first= Gary |last= Trust |magazine=Billboard }}</ref> [[The Rolling Stones]] also got into the act with songs like "[[Dead Flowers (The Rolling Stones song)|Dead Flowers]]"; the original recording of "[[Honky Tonk Women]]" was performed in a country style, but it was subsequently re-recorded in a hard rock style for the single version, and the band's preferred country version was later released on the album ''[[Let It Bleed]]'', under the title "Country Honk".

Described by [[AllMusic]] as the "father of country-rock",<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p5109|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic.com], Gram Parsons: Overview</ref> Gram Parsons' work in the early 1970s was acclaimed for its purity and for his appreciation for aspects of traditional country music.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/gramparsons|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429081141/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/gramparsons|url-status=dead|title=Gram Parsons|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|archive-date=April 29, 2009}}</ref> Though his career was cut tragically short by his 1973 death, his legacy was carried on by his protégé and duet partner [[Emmylou Harris]]; Harris would release her debut solo in 1975, an amalgamation of country, rock and roll, folk, blues and pop. Subsequent to the initial blending of the two polar opposite genres, other offspring soon resulted, including [[Southern rock]], [[heartland rock]] and in more recent years, [[alternative country]]. In the decades that followed, artists such as [[Juice Newton]], [[Alabama (American band)|Alabama]], [[Hank Williams, Jr.]] (and, to an even greater extent, [[Hank Williams III]]), [[Gary Allan]], [[Shania Twain]], [[Brooks & Dunn]], [[Faith Hill]], [[Garth Brooks]], [[Dwight Yoakam]], [[Steve Earle]], [[Dolly Parton]], [[Rosanne Cash]] and [[Linda Ronstadt]] moved country further towards rock influence.

====Neocountry====
In 1980, a style of "neocountry disco music" was popularized by the film ''[[Urban Cowboy]]''.<ref name="Workin 1999. page 259">{{cite book| first1 = Gerald W.| last1 = Haslam| first2 = Alexandra Russell| last2 = Haslam| first3 = Richard| last3 = Chon| title = Workin' Man Blues: Country Music in California| date = April 1, 1999| publisher = University of California Press| isbn = 978-0-520-21800-0| page = [https://archive.org/details/workinmanbluesco00hasl/page/259 259]| url = https://archive.org/details/workinmanbluesco00hasl/page/259}}</ref> It was during this time that a glut of pop-country crossover artists began appearing on the country charts: former pop stars [[Bill Medley]] (of [[the Righteous Brothers]]), [[Dan Seals|"England Dan" Seals]] (of [[England Dan and John Ford Coley]]), [[Tom Jones (singer)|Tom Jones]], and [[Merrill Osmond]] (both alone and with some of [[The Osmonds|his brothers]]; his younger sister [[Marie Osmond]] was already an established country star) all recorded significant country hits in the early 1980s. Sales in record stores rocketed to $250&nbsp;million in 1981; by 1984, 900 radio stations began programming country or neocountry pop full-time. As with most sudden trends, however, by 1984 sales had dropped below 1979 figures.<ref name="Workin 1999. page 259"/>

====Truck driving country====<!-- linked from [[truck driving country music]] -->
{{Main|Truck-driving country}}
Truck driving country music is a genre of country music<ref name="truckers-jukebox">{{cite book
| title = Trucker's Jukebox: Various Artists: Music
| url = https://www.amazon.com/Truckers-Jukebox-Various-Artists/dp/B0009A1ATG
| access-date = February 24, 2009
| quote = Trucker's Jukebox covers the Country landscape: outlaw, honkey tonk, country-rock, Bakersfield sound, country comedy, truck driving country and more.}}</ref>
and is a fusion of [[honky-tonk]], [[country rock]] and the [[Bakersfield sound]].<ref name="starpulse">{{cite web|title=Truck Driving Country Music |url=http://www.starpulse.com/Genre/MusicGenres.html?Genre=CTRY&ID=D4307&Lvl=4 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120604195447/http://www.starpulse.com/Genre/MusicGenres.html?Genre=CTRY&ID=D4307&Lvl=4 |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 4, 2012 |publisher=All Media Guide LLC |access-date=February 24, 2009 }}</ref>
It has the [[tempo]] of country rock and the emotion of honky-tonk,<ref name="starpulse"/> and its lyrics focus on a [[truck driver]]'s lifestyle.<ref name="amazon">{{cite web
| title = Dave Dudley: Albums, Songs, Bios, Photos
| website = Amazon
| url = https://www.amazon.com/Dave-Dudley/e/B000APBUEU
| access-date = February 24, 2009
}}</ref> Truck driving country songs often deal with the profession of trucking and love.<ref name="starpulse"/> Well-known artists who sing truck driving country include [[Dave Dudley]], [[Red Sovine]], [[Dick Curless]], [[Red Simpson]], [[Del Reeves]], [[the Willis Brothers]] and [[Jerry Reed]], with [[C. W. McCall]] and [[Cledus Maggard]] (pseudonyms of Bill Fries and Jay Huguely, respectively) being more humorous entries in the subgenre.<ref name="starpulse"/> Dudley is known as the father of truck driving country.<ref name="amazon"/><ref name="mp3com">{{cite web|title=Dave Dudley |url=http://www.mp3.com/genre/193/subgenre.html |access-date=February 24, 2009 |publisher=CBS Interactive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305202416/http://www.mp3.com/genre/193/subgenre.html |archive-date=March 5, 2009 }}</ref>

====Neotraditionalist movement====
{{Main|Neotraditionalist country}}
[[File:George Strait 2014 1.jpg|thumb|upright|[[George Strait]], a pioneer of the neotraditionalist movement and dubbed the "King of Country,"<ref name="martings"/> Strait is one of the best selling musicians of all time.<ref name="martings">{{cite news |last1=Martin |first1=Annie |title=George Strait debuts new single ahead of forthcoming album |url=https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Music/2015/09/23/George-Strait-debuts-new-single-ahead-of-forthcoming-album/8591443038111/ |access-date=January 5, 2021 |work=[[United Press International]] |date=September 23, 2015}}</ref>]]
During the mid-1980s, a group of new artists began to emerge who rejected the more polished country-pop sound that had been prominent on radio and the charts, in favor of more, traditional, "back-to-basics" production. Many of the artists during the latter half of the 1980s drew on traditional honky-tonk, bluegrass, folk and western swing. Artists who typified this sound included [[Travis Tritt]], [[Reba McEntire]], [[George Strait]], [[Keith Whitley]], [[Alan Jackson]], [[John Anderson (musician)|John Anderson]], [[Patty Loveless]], [[Kathy Mattea]], [[Randy Travis]], [[Dwight Yoakam]], [[Clint Black]], [[Ricky Skaggs]], and [[the Judds]].