There are multitudes of music genres in today's musical world. Country music is among one of my personal favorites therefore I thought I would provide a little bit of country history to the forefront. If you don't know a good deal about country music suffice it to say that every country songs tell a story. It has been said these songs are about our lives, who we are and where we came from. Country music developed two of the top selling solo musical artists in history in America. Elvis Presley's early career was naturally country hillbilly music and then he proceeded to become one of the defining figures in the birth of Rock n Roll. Garth Brooks is the second bestselling solo artist in United States history and has a very well liked show in Las Vegas. That's a pretty extraordinary start. Going back in history, however, we discover that Country music goes back to the early 1920's in America and it has its roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, Blues, Bluegrass and Gospel music. Early country music was termed "Hillbilly" music but the terminology changed to Country Music during the early 1940's. In its beginnings, Country music was pure American; the country music viewers were American, its vocalists were American and its sound was American.

1925 brought in the era of the "Singing Cowboy" when the first cowboy song was recorded by Carl T. Sprague. The full popularity of the singing cowboy wasn't really identified until talking movies starring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter and even a young John Wayne became popular in the 1930's. John Wayne, however, didn't in reality sing; he just played the movie part of the cowboy while someone else supplied the singing voice. But he was off to an incredible movie career. With the introduction of Television to the American people, the era of the singing cowboy movies came to a close in the 1950's. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers continued their roles as "singing cowboys" in a few of the first western series produced for television. In the film Toy Story 2, "Woody's Roundup" was shown as an interpretation of one of these first television series.

The 1960's added alterations and diversification to the country music genre as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, June Carter Cash, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Marty Robbins, Eddie Arnold and others became the Country music stars. Plenty of the country songs recorded in the 1960's crossed over to the Pop charts adding another music culture to the country sound. A lot of country music singers employed their songwriting skills for both themselves as well as other artists. Kris Kristopherson wrote quite a few songs for country artists, however, he also wrote "Me and Bobby McGee" which Janis Joplin popularized before her untimely death. An extremely popular Elvis song "Kentucky Rain" was composed by Eddie Rabbitt; another excellent country music songwriter. Eddie Rabbitt also wrote songs for films such as the title song for "Every Which Way but Loose" starring Clint Eastwood. The 70's and 80's brought new changes to the country music scene. With the popularity of the film "Urban Cowboy" in 1980 starring John Travolta, artists like Barbara Mandrell, Alabama, the Oak Ridge Boys, The Bellamy Brothers, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and George Strait became popular among numerous others in the country music field. Everybody wanted to be a cowboy. As the times have changed, country music has reinvented itself to fit to these changing times. To name just a few, vocalists like Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Reba McIntyre, Zac Brown Band, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts are all making their mark on the country music scene.

In conclusion, listen closely to the words of the country music songs...hear the stories about life and find out if you're able to find a little bit of yourself and your life in these excellent songs.