9781422274354

Origins of Country Music What do you picture when you hear the words “country music?” If you don’t normally listen to this music, you might imagine men in overalls stomping one foot and singing in a twangy voice while someone plays a banjo or fiddle. If you have had some exposure to the music, you may picture someone in jeans and a cowboy hat holding an acoustic guitar and singing something about his woman leaving him, or about drinking, or both. If you are a fan of country music and have a good idea of what it is, however, you realized that it is these things but it is also a whole lot more. Regardless of where you stand in your knowledge of country music, you will find that the music you listen to today is more than likely to have found its roots in this form of music. Let’s start our journey by taking a look at what exactly makes a song country music. The Lyrics Ask any country music fan and they will tell you that the most important element in any country song is the lyrics. In country music, every song tells a story. Sometimes the story is just a small glimpse into a part of some environment, such as a

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