History of Country music

Earliest recordings of country music occurred.

Eck Robertson and Henry Gilliland were the earliest recordings of country music in 1922 when the auditioned for Victor Records in New York City.

Store furniture salesman convinced OKeh record company to record Fiddlin' John Carson. This caused producers to go out to the artists, putting them in direct contact with the artist.

Radio stations started branching to more cities like Nashville. The radio reached rural areas that liked listening to string bands, folk singers, and fiddlers.

A significant set of recordings transformed the emergent country music into a national phenomenon.

Country music reached a national audience, and evolved with new musical style.

Record labels started to pickup, and new labels such as Decca adopted country music as an area of specialization.

Bands like Bob Wills introduced introduced instruments like piano, drums, horns, and electrified steel guitars into their essemblies.

Western swing country music had been adopted.

Cowboys were prompted as the image for country music giving it a more respectable image.

Large country music bands sounded closely jazz ensemble type music.

During WW2 soldiers shared country music with their colleagues from other backgrounds.

The Armed Forces Radio Network regularly featured country music, which came to represent ideas of home and patriotism.

Bluegrass music developed after WW2 as a modernization of older string band traditions.

Cajun fiddler Harry Choates recorded Jole Blon, which caught the attention of enough independent radio DJs to turn it into a substantial hit.

KWKH in Shreveport, LA launched the Louisiana Hayride, a barn dance radio program that further fused Cajun traditions with country music.

Ernest Tubb and others artists led a charge to increase the respectability of country and change the terminology by which the music was known, replacing hillbilly with new labels including folk and country and western.

Country music centered on honky-tonk, western swing, and bluegrass

Elvis Presley turned honky-tonk music into rockabilly. It was characterized by energized bass, pulsating rhythm guitar, and brazen electric guitar solos, all supporting vocal performance.

Young listeners turned away from country music and went towards rock and roll.

Nashville started working with rock and roll artists such as Elvis Presley.

California rockers The Byrds recorded an album in Nashville in an effort to fuse their rock music with country.

Female country singers gained greater prominence. Loretta Lynn staked out musical territory with songs about outspoken working-class women who challenged gender stereotypes.

The songwriting community in Nashville grew in size, prestige, and sophistication.