Country music

===Second generation (1930s–1940s)===
{{see also|1940s in music#Country music|l1=1940s in music § Country}}
[[File:Roy Acuff 1950.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Roy Acuff]]]]
Record sales declined during the [[Great Depression]], but radio became a popular source of entertainment, and "barn dance" shows featuring country music were started by radio stations all over the South, as far north as Chicago, and as far west as California.

The most important was the ''[[Grand Ole Opry]]'', aired starting in 1925 by [[WSM (AM)|WSM]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] and continuing to the present day.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=David |title=The Grand Ole Opry history started on the 28th of November 1925, with George D. Hay, who was its first director |url=https://www.cheapoticketing.com/tn/nashville/grand-ole-opry-history |website=Grand Ole Opry |access-date=July 27, 2019}}</ref> Some of the early stars on the ''Opry'' were [[Uncle Dave Macon]], [[Roy Acuff]] and African American harmonica player [[DeFord Bailey]]. WSM's 50,000-watt signal (in 1934) could often be heard across the country.<ref>{{cite web| author=code:v_farquharson@kshira_interactive and j_nowicki@kshira_interactive design:k_wilson@framewerk |url=https://www.pbs.org/americanrootsmusic/pbs_arm_episode_summaries.html |title=American Roots Music: Episode Summaries |publisher=PBS |access-date=February 1, 2011}}</ref> Many musicians performed and recorded songs in any number of styles. [[Moon Mullican]], for example, played [[western swing]] but also recorded songs that can be called [[rockabilly]]. Between 1947 and 1949, country crooner [[Eddy Arnold]] placed eight songs in the top 10.<ref>[http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_index.jsp Billboard.com] ''Billboard.com'' {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110803173648/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_index.jsp |date=August 3, 2011 }}</ref> From 1945 to 1955 [[Jenny Lou Carson]] was one of the most prolific songwriters in country music.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Langley |first1=Jerry|last2=Rogers |first2=Arnold |title=Many Tears Ago: The Life and Times of Jenny Lou Carson |url=http://www.hillbilly-music.com/library/books/index.php?id=3964 |publisher=Nova Books |isbn=0-9628452-4-8 |access-date=July 10, 2015|year=2005}}</ref>

====Singing cowboys and western swing====
[[File:Roy Rogers and Gail Davis 1948.jpg|thumb|upright|Publicity photo of [[Roy Rogers]] and [[Gail Davis]], 1948]]

In the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Some of the popular [[singing cowboy]]s from the era were [[Gene Autry]], the [[Sons of the Pioneers]], and [[Roy Rogers]].<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040216083920/http://www.roughstock.com/history/cowboy.html |archive-date=February 16, 2004 |url=http://www.roughstock.com/history/cowboy.html |title=Roughstock's History of Country Music – Cowboy Music |publisher=Roughstock.com |access-date=February 1, 2011}}</ref> Country music and western music were frequently played together on the same radio stations, hence the term ''country and western'' music, despite country and western being two distinct genres.

Cowgirls contributed to the sound in various family groups. [[Patsy Montana]] opened the door for female artists with her history-making song "I Want To Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart". This would begin a movement toward opportunities for women to have successful solo careers. [[Bob Wills]] was another country musician from the Lower [[Great Plains]] who had become very popular as the leader of a "[[Dixieland|hot]] [[string band]]," and who also appeared in [[Western (genre)|Hollywood westerns]]. His mix of country and [[jazz]], which started out as dance hall music, would become known as [[western swing]]. [[Cliff Bruner]], [[Moon Mullican]], [[Milton Brown]] and [[Adolph Hofner]] were other early western swing pioneers. [[Spade Cooley]] and [[Tex Williams]] also had very popular bands and appeared in films. At its height, western swing rivaled the popularity of [[big band]] swing music.

====Changing instrumentation====
Drums were scorned by early country musicians as being "too loud" and "not pure", but by 1935 western swing big band leader Bob Wills had added drums to the [[Texas Playboys]]. In the mid-1940s, the Grand Ole Opry did not want the Playboys' drummer to appear on stage. Although drums were commonly used by rockabilly groups by 1955, the less-conservative-than-the-Grand-Ole-Opry ''[[Louisiana Hayride]]'' kept its infrequently used drummer backstage as late as 1956. By the early 1960s, however, it was rare for a country band not to have a drummer.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/experience-museum-programs-school-instruments.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723204246/http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/experience-museum-programs-school-instruments.aspx|url-status=dead|title=Instruments &#124; Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum&#124;Nashville, Tennessee|archive-date=July 23, 2008}}</ref> Bob Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an [[electric guitar]] to his band, in 1938.<ref name="Takecountryback.com"/> A decade later (1948) [[Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith|Arthur Smith]] achieved top 10 US country chart success with his MGM Records recording of "[[Guitar Boogie (song)|Guitar Boogie]]", which crossed over to the US pop chart, introducing many people to the potential of the electric guitar. For several decades Nashville session players preferred the warm tones of the [[Gibson Guitar Corporation|Gibson]] and [[Gretsch]] archtop electrics, but a "hot" [[Fender Musical Instruments Corporation|Fender]] style, using guitars which became available beginning in the early 1950s, eventually prevailed as the signature guitar sound of country.<ref name="autogenerated1" /><ref>[http://www.empsfm.org/exhibitions/index.asp?categoryID=129&ccID=132 Empsfm.org ], exhibitions – online features {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203052822/http://www.empsfm.org/exhibitions/index.asp?categoryID=129&ccID=132 |date=December 3, 2010 }}</ref>

====Hillbilly boogie====
Country musicians began recording [[boogie-woogie|boogie]] in 1939, shortly after it had been played at [[Carnegie Hall]], when [[Johnny Barfield]] recorded "Boogie Woogie". The trickle of what was initially called hillbilly boogie, or okie boogie (later to be renamed country boogie), became a flood beginning in late 1945. One notable release from this period was [[the Delmore Brothers]]' "Freight Train Boogie", considered to be part of the combined evolution of country music and blues towards [[rockabilly]]. In 1948, [[Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith]] achieved top ten US country chart success with his MGM Records recordings of "[[Guitar Boogie (song)|Guitar Boogie]]" and "Banjo Boogie", with the former crossing over to the US pop charts.<ref>[http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Arthur-Smith.html Oldies.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217152558/http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Arthur-Smith.html |date=February 17, 2011 }}, Arthur Smith Biography.</ref> Other country boogie artists included [[Moon Mullican]], [[Merrill Moore (musician)|Merrill Moore]] and [[Tennessee Ernie Ford]]. The hillbilly boogie period lasted into the 1950s and remains one of many subgenres of country into the 21st century.

====Bluegrass, folk and gospel====
{{Main|Bluegrass music}}
[[File:MonroeBrothers.jpg|thumb|right|Bill and Charlie Monroe (1936). Bill Monroe (1911–1996) and the Blue Grass Boys created the bluegrass by the end of World War II.]]
By the end of [[World War II]], "mountaineer" string band music known as [[Bluegrass music|bluegrass]] had emerged when [[Bill Monroe]] joined with [[Lester Flatt]] and [[Earl Scruggs]], introduced by Roy Acuff at the Grand Ole Opry. That was the ordination of bluegrass music and how Bill Monroe came to be known as the "Father of Bluegrass." [[Gospel music]], too, remained a popular component of bluegrass and other sorts of country music. [[Red Foley]], the biggest country star following World War II, had one of the first million-selling gospel hits ("[[Peace in the Valley]]") and also sang boogie, blues and rockabilly. In the post-war period, country music was called "folk" in the trades, and "hillbilly" within the industry.<ref>{{cite book| first = Charles K.| last = Wolfe|author2=James Edward Akenson| title = Country Music Goes to War| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj9r6l_OZoEC&pg=PA55| year = 2005| publisher = University Press of Kentucky| isbn = 978-0-8131-7188-3| page = 55 }}</ref> In 1944, ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' replaced the term "hillbilly" with "folk songs and blues," and switched to "country and western" in 1949.<ref>{{cite book| last = Cohen| first = Norm| title = Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong (2d ed.)| date = April 17, 2000| publisher = University of Illinois Press| isbn = 978-0-252-06881-2| page = 31 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Cohen| first = Norm| title = Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AY7St4-8x10C&pg=PA30| access-date = February 1, 2011| year = 2000| publisher = University of Illinois Press| isbn = 978-0-252-06881-2 }}</ref>

====Honky tonk====
[[File:Hank Williams MGM Records - cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Hank Williams]]]]
Another type of stripped-down and raw music with a variety of moods and a basic ensemble of guitar, bass, [[dobro]] or steel guitar (and later) drums became popular, especially among rural residents in the three states of [[Texhomex]], those being [[Texas|''Tex''as]], [[Oklahoma|Okla''ho''ma]], and [[New Mexico|New ''Mex''ico]].<ref name="Country Music Magazine (Périodique) 1994 ">{{cite book | author=Country Music Magazine (Périodique) | title=The Comprehensive Country Music Encyclopedia | publisher=Times Books | series=A country music magazine press book | year=1994 | page=39 | isbn=978-0-8129-2247-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bi_aAAAAMAAJ | access-date=June 16, 2021}}</ref> It became known as [[Honky tonk music|honky tonk]] and had its roots in western swing and the [[ranchera]] music of Mexico and the border states, particularly New Mexico and Texas,<ref name="Ingman 1997 p. ">{{cite book | last=Ingman | first=J. | title=A.O.K.: Record Labels of West Texas & New Mexico | publisher=Ingman Music Research | year=1997 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ing5AQAAIAAJ | access-date=June 16, 2021 | page=}}</ref> together with the blues of the American South. [[Bob Wills]] and His Texas Playboys personified this music which has been described as "a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, a little bit of black and a little bit of white&nbsp;... just loud enough to keep you from thinking too much and to go right on ordering the whiskey."<ref name="Workin 1999. page 135">{{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/135 135]| url = https://archive.org/details/workinmanbluesco00hasl/page/135}}</ref> East Texan [[Al Dexter]] had a hit with "Honky Tonk Blues", and seven years later "[[Pistol Packin' Mama]]".<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Perkins| first1 = Carl| last2 = McGee| first2 = David| title = Go, Cat, Go!: The Life and Times of Carl Perkins, the King of Rockabilly| year = 1996| publisher = Hyperion Books| isbn = 978-0-7868-6073-9| pages = 23–24 }}</ref> These "honky tonk" songs were associated with barrooms, and was performed by the likes of [[Ernest Tubb]], [[Kitty Wells]] (the first major female country solo singer), [[Ted Daffan]], [[Floyd Tillman]], the [[Maddox Brothers and Rose]], [[Lefty Frizzell]] and [[Hank Williams]]; the music of these artists would later be called "traditional" country. Williams' influence in particular would prove to be enormous, inspiring many of the pioneers of rock and roll,{{sfn |Gilliland |1969 |loc=show 9}} such as [[Elvis Presley]], [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], [[Chuck Berry]] and [[Ike Turner]], while providing a framework for emerging honky tonk talents like [[George Jones]]. [[Webb Pierce]] was the top-charting country artist of the 1950s, with 13 of his singles spending 113 weeks at number one. He charted 48 singles during the decade; 31 reached the top ten and 26 reached the top four.