Country

### **History Of Genre**

Country is a genre originally stemming from the Southern States of the United States of America in the early 1920s. It is arguably America's answer to Folk Music and has many aspects, especially of British and Irish folk. Skillet Lickers are one of the most notable acts, especially for making guitar and fiddle and important aspect of the genre, especially in the early era of country.

The 1930s gave way to the subgenre Western Swing, which is arguably a mixture between Jazz and Country. This is the main genre on which the famous country 'Train Beat' on drums originates from. The Early 30s also was home to Robert Johnson who is cited as one of the most influential people in country music.

The 1940s is the origin point of Bluegrass music with acts such as Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs for example.

The 1950s and 1960s was the starting point of rock and country music had become intertwined with rock music almost immediately with genres such as Rockabilly with acts like Bill Haley, as well as famous Rock and Roll acts such as Elvis Presley making many early examples of Country Pop. With this rise in popularity and the ability to make music more grand and more profitable, paved way for two very important recording studios for the genre. The First being Nashville, which was more focused on making new and complicated sounds with country. Particually with adding many instruments such as string sections, horn sections and many vocal harmonies for examples, making it more pop orientated and 'full'. The other important recording studio was Bakersfield which was more focused on keeping the old "authentic" country sound that had existed in the 1940s and earlier.

The 1970s was the main decade that Country Pop had fully taken over the previous country sound in the mainstream, with acts such as Dolly Paton, John Denver and Kenny Rogers. Another major country sub-genre that had formed in this decade is Southern Rock with acts such as Hank Williams, The Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd

Country had made another major comeback in the mainstream in the 1990s mainly due to Garth Brooks and from Billy Rae Cyrus topping the 1991 chart with. Country also had another major comeback in the late 2000s to early 2010s mainly with Female acts with late Dixie Chicks (now known as The Chicks), (early) Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. With this emergence of female acts came the male reactive genre Bro Country which was also big at the time with acts such as Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean.

Very recently in 2019, Country Rap has become a sensation with Lil Nas X's Old Town Road and The Git Up by Blanco Brown, although it is still too recent to see if this will catch on or just be a novelty footnote in the country legacy.

### **Aspect Of Genre**

Country has stylistic routes in British and Irish folk. The main aspect of the genre is that the vocals are sang with a twang and that there is usually an acoustic or clean guitar for some of it. There are other instruments that are very common to country and not many other genres including Pedal Steel, Fiddle and Banjo as well as the standard bass, drums and occasional keyboard/piano and electric guitar. The drums are played with a major emphasis on having a kick on the strong beats and the snare on the weaker, which is not exclusive to country, but it is a necessary part to it. A common drum beat in country is the train beat, which is played exclusively on the snare with either cross sticking or accents to vary it. A common way to see the bass played in the genre is it playing the 1 and 5th of the chord in tandem. Vocally country musical will usually have harmonies, most commonly a 4th above or below, which is different to most genres which have it be a 3rd.

Lyrically, Country can be very diverse, but it is generally one of the more lighthearted genres with most of the songs being about love, the good and bad of it. This especially became more the case once Country Pop took over. Another very common theme with country is pride of the place/area the singer comes from. But there are examples of political or heavy hitting songs.

### **In Game**

In game, Country, tied with R&B is the genre with the least amount of songs total. In the base game, it is the genre with the least, with only 4. But the small selection is still diverse with all 4 of those songs being from different decades.

Strangely, despite the small selection, it has one of the only two 1960s songs with Gentle On My Mind

Controversially the song Old Town Road (Remix) by Rapper Lil Nas X is not considered Country, or even Rap/Hip-Hop, despite being a Country-Rap song. It is considered in game to be Pop. Another song that is arguably very country in composition that is not listed under the genre in game is Nothing Breaks Like A Heart by Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus, this song is also listed as Pop in game.