| Country Article |
Country music, the first half of Billboard's country and western music category, is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, blues, gospel music, hokum, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s. The term country music began to be used in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music was deemed to be degrading, and the term was widely embraced in the 1970s, while country and western has declined in use since that time.
In the Southwestern United States a different mix of ethnic groups from Mexico, the British Isles, Germany, and the Czech Republic created the music that became the Western music of the term Country Western.
Country music has produced two of the top selling solo artists of all time. Elvis Presley, The Hillbilly Cat, appeared on the Louisiana Hayride for three years, went on to help define rock n roll, and became known as The King. Garth Brooks, except for a short foray into non country near the end of his recording career, recorded and performed country music and is one top selling solo artist.
As of 2007, country is the most popular radio format in America, reaching 77.3 million adults almost 40 percent of the adult population every week. |
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