Listen to country music songs for your enjoyment

 

Country music songs can include a wide variety of music. Country music songs vary widely within the genre and its many subsets, including; Outlaw country, Pop country, Bluegrass and Rockabilly among others. The various subsets within the country music genre feature their own unique sound, instruments favored, and lyrical stylings, while still utilizing the basic elements which classifies it as country music. Additionally, there are several subsets within each subset making country music songs a fascinating case study in the origins of popular music. It is interesting to examine different country music songs across subsets and detect the influences each inevitably has upon the other.

 

Country music songs belonging to the subset of Bluegrass are thought to have originated with British Isle immigrants who settled in the Appalachian mountain region. Bluegrass music is typically played by acoustical stringed instruments such as the banjo, fiddle and mandolin which take turns playing the melody and feature a three or four part vocal harmony. Bluegrass music dates back to the 1940’s and was made popular by artists such as Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys.

 

In the late 1960’s through the 1970’s artists such as Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson were responsible for writing country music songs which were called “outlaw” country. The lyrical content of many of these songs were tales of woe, gambling, murder and whiskey and include the man in black’s notorious “Folsom Prison Blues”. Outlaw country was said to have been born out of opposition to the direction the Nashville sound was headed in. With a rock and roll sound and a counter culture appearance and lyrical content, outlaw country music songs defined a new era of country music.

 

Rockabilly is another rock n roll inspired subset within the country music genre. Infused with the blues, Rockabilly country music songs flourished in the 1950’s and provided an upbeat danceable rhythm which was quite popular with the younger age group. Without doubt, the most famous rockabilly artist was a boy hailing from Memphis Tennessee named Elvis Presley. Immortalized through song, Elvis Presley put Rockabilly music on the map.

 

Country music songs vary greatly according to musical and lyrical styling and provide a fascinating timeline illustrating the progression of a very popular genre.