The first commercial recording of what is widely considered the first country song featuring vocals and lyrics was Fiddlin' John Carson with Little Log Cabin in the Lane for Okeh Records on the 14th of June 1923. This recording emerged from a landscape where migration into the southern Appalachian Mountains had brought folk music and instruments of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin for nearly three hundred years, developing into a distinct Appalachian music. Before these recordings, pioneer settlers in the Great Smoky Mountains region had already developed a rich musical heritage that blended British folk traditions with the rhythms of the American frontier. The music was believed to be derived from British folk music brought to the United States during early waves of immigration, yet it was the specific cultural crossroads of the Mississippi River and Louisiana that gave rise to Cajun music, while the Rocky Mountains and Rio Grande acted as a backdrop for Native American, Mexican, and cowboy ballads. This fusion resulted in New Mexico music and the development of western music, which is directly related to Red Dirt, Texas country, and Tejano music styles. The steel guitar sound of country music has its provenance in the music of Hawaii, proving that the genre was never isolated but rather a constant conversation between different cultures and geographies.
Hillbilly to Country and Western
The term country music was popularized in the 1940s to replace the earlier label of hillbilly music, which had been used to describe the genre since its inception. In 1944, Billboard replaced the term hillbilly with folk songs and blues, and switched to country and western in 1949, reflecting a shift in how the industry viewed its own history. The largest country music radio show, the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville and continues to the present day, serving as a constant anchor for the genre. Before the Opry, the Mountain City Fiddlers Convention held in 1925 helped to inspire modern country music, while the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927 formally recognized Bristol, Tennessee, as the Birthplace of Country Music. The first commercial recordings of what was considered instrumental music in the traditional country style were Arkansas Traveler and Turkey in the Straw by fiddlers Henry Gilliland and A.C. Robertson on the 30th of June 1922, for Victor Records and released in April 1923. Vernon Dalhart was considered the first country singer to have a nationwide hit in May 1924 with Wreck of the Old 97, while Aunt Samantha Bumgarner and Eva Davis became the first female musicians to record and release country songs in April 1924. These early recordings laid the groundwork for a genre that would eventually be recognized by the U.S. Congress as a Southern phenomenon.
Bob Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band in 1938, marking a pivotal shift in the sonic landscape of the genre. By 1935, drums were looked down upon by early country musicians as being too loud and not pure for the country sound, yet Wills added them to his western swing band, Texas Playboys, despite opposition by the country music venue, the Grand Ole Opry. In contrast, the Louisiana Hayride, a less conservative country music venue, kept a house drummer backstage as late as 1956, signaling a changing of the guard. The music of these artists who began in this type would later be referred to as traditional country, with honky tonk songs associated with bar rooms. East Texan Al Dexter had a hit with Honky Tonk Blues, and seven years later Pistol Packin' Mama, while others include 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. Webb Pierce, a honky tonk singer, was the top-charting country artist of the 1950s, with 13 of his singles spending 113 weeks at number one. In 1951, Williams's Cold, Cold Heart earned crossover success with Tony Bennett's traditional pop cover version, which introduced Williams's songwriting to mainstream audiences. The electric guitar eventually prevailed as the signature guitar sound of country, with a hot Fender style using guitars which became available beginning in the early 1950s, replacing the warm tones of the Gibson and Gretsch archtop electrics that Nashville session players had preferred for several decades.
Outlaws and the Nashville Sound
Outlaw country emerged in the late 1950s and 1960s from traditional Western music styles like Red Dirt, New Mexico, Texas country, Tejano, and honky-tonk, with lyrics capturing anger and alienation from personal or economic struggles. Originating in the bars and honky-tonks of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas, it was shaped by artists like Johnny Cash with his 1963 hit Ring of Fire, and driven by figures like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Hank Williams, Jr., Merle Haggard, and Joe Ely. The outlaw movement revolutionized country music in the early 1970s, epitomized in the 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws, and its influence persisted into the 1980s through supergroups like The Highwaymen, Bandido, and Texas Tornados. In the early 1970s, a style of neocountry disco music was popularized by the film Urban Cowboy, and during this time a glut of pop-country crossover artists began appearing on the country charts. Former pop stars Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, England Dan Seals of England Dan and John Ford Coley, Tom Jones, and Merrill Osmond all recorded significant country hits in the early 1980s. Sales in record stores rocketed to 250 million dollars in 1981, and by 1984, 900 radio stations began programming country or neocountry pop full-time. The Nashville sound, peaking in the early 1960s under producers like Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, and Billy Sherrill, turned country into a multimillion-dollar industry in Nashville, Tennessee, borrowing pop stylings with smooth vocals, strings, and licks, key artists including Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, and Eddy Arnold. The slip note piano of Floyd Cramer was central to this sound, which collapsed in 1964 amid rock's rise and the plane crash deaths of Reeves and Cline, evolving into countrypolitan for mainstream markets through the early 1970s.
The Global Expansion of Country
Country music has risen in popularity in a number of African countries, with Nigerian country music continuing to grow within the large music industry there. In eastern Africa, the roots of country can be traced back even earlier, with Eswatini having a number of popular singers who blend country music with local and traditional styles of guitar, beginning in the 1970s. In the 1950s in Zambia, the opening of a number of copper mines in northern Zambia's Copperbelt region brought similar stories of industrialization and movement to the people in this area. Guitar was integrated into local music, as a result of Zambians returning from World War II and a cross-cultural interactions with international mining staff, developing a unique country folk music from the region. In Japan, country and western music first developed a following before World War II, but many Japanese became exposed to it after the war due to the Far East Network. One of the first Japanese western acts was Biji Kuroda and The Chuck Wagon Boys, and the genre continues to have a dedicated following in Japan, thanks to Charlie Nagatani, Katsuoshi Suga, J.T. Kanehira, Dicky Kitano, and Manami Sekiya. In Mongolia, there is a developing country music scene, with Enkh-Erdene performing a cover of George Strait's Amarillo by Morning on The World's Best in 2019, and releasing country music album Arvan Tavnii Saran in the Mongolian language with original songs in 2023. The Baatar is another singer and musician of Mongolian country by blending country music with traditional Mongolian folk elements, including urtyn duu singing techniques and instruments like the morin khuur and tsuur, releasing their first album in 2022.
The Bro-Country Civil War
In the early 2010s, bro-country, a genre noted primarily for its themes on drinking and partying, girls, and pickup trucks became particularly popular. Artists associated with this genre are Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Jake Owen and Florida Georgia Line whose song Cruise became the best-selling country song of all time. Research in the mid-2010s suggested that about 45 percent of country's best-selling songs could be considered bro-country, with the top two artists being Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line. Albums by bro-country singers also sold very well, with Luke Bryan's Crash My Party being the third best-selling of all albums in the United States in 2013, and Florida Georgia Line's Here's to the Good Times at sixth, and Blake Shelton's Based on a True Story at ninth. It is also thought that the popularity of bro-country helped country music to surpass classic rock as the most popular genre in the American country in 2012. The genre however is controversial as it has been criticized by other country musicians and commentators over its themes and depiction of women, opening up a divide between the older generation of country singers and the younger bro country singers that was described as civil war by musicians, critics, and journalists. In 2014, Maddie and Tae's Girl in a Country Song, addressing many of the controversial bro-country themes, peaked at number one on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. The genre continues to evolve and attract new influences, with the influence of rock music in country having become more overt during the late 2000s and early 2010s, and hip hop also making its mark on country music with the emergence of country rap.
The Modern Renaissance and Future
In 2024, Beyonce released a country album, Cowboy Carter, to popular acclaim, featuring original songs such as Texas Hold Em and a cover of Dolly Parton's Jolene. The genre continues to evolve and attract new influences, with the influence of rock music in country having become more overt during the late 2000s and early 2010s, and hip hop also making its mark on country music with the emergence of country rap. Lil Nas X's song Old Town Road spent 19 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the longest-running number-one song since the chart debuted in 1958, winning Billboard Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and a Grammy Award. Sam Hunt's Leave the Night On peaked concurrently on the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, making Hunt the first country artist in 22 years, since Billy Ray Cyrus, to reach the top of three country charts simultaneously in the Nielsen SoundScan-era. In the early 2020s, the uptick in country music's popularity has resulted in more songs in this genre reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, including Morgan Wallen's Last Night and Jason Aldean's Try That in a Small Town. Currently, Morgan Wallen is the traditional country artist with the most Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers, with four. In 2019, Kacey Musgraves, a country artist who had gained a following with indie rock fans, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for her album Golden Hour. The genre continues to evolve and attract new influences, with the influence of rock music in country having become more overt during the late 2000s and early 2010s, and hip hop also making its mark on country music with the emergence of country rap.