Country Music 1930 - 1940

The period between 1930 -1940 defined by name a number of current syles or sub genres of Country Music which still influence many of our songs today.

Western or Cowboy Songs
During the 1930s and 1940s Cowboy songs, or "Western music", which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Some of the popular singing cowboys from the era were Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers, and Roy Rogers.

Swing
Another "country" musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a “hot string band”, and who also appeared in Hollywood Westerns, was Bob Wills. His mix of "country" and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, would become known as Western Swing. Spade Cooley and Tex Williams also had very popular bands and appeared in films. At the height of its popularity, Western Swing rivaled the popularity of other big band jazz.

Boogie
Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had been played at Carnegie Hall, when Johnny Barfield recorded "Boogie Woogie". The trickle of what was initially called Hillbilly Boogie, or Okie Boogie became a flood beginning around late 1945. One notable country boogie from this period was the Delmore Brothers' "Freight Train Boogie", considered to be part of the combined evolution of country music and blues towards rockabilly.

In 1948 Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith achieved Top 10 US country chart success with his MGM Records recordings of "Guitar Boogie" and "Banjo Boogie", with the former crossing over to the US pop charts. Other country boogie artists include Merrill Moore, and Tennessee Ernie Ford. The Hillbilly Boogie period lasted into the 1950s, and remains as one of many subgenres of country into the twenty first century.

Bluegrass
By the end of World War II "mountaineer" string band music known as Bluegrass had emerged when Bill Monroe joined with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, led by Roy Acuff at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Gospel music, too, remained a popular component of country music.

Honky Tonk
Another type of stripped down and raw music with a variety of moods and a basic ensemble of guitar, bass, dobro or steel guitar (and later) drums became popular, especially among poor white southerners. It became known as Honky Tonk and had its roots in Texas.

This music has been described as "a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, a little bit of black and a little bit of white...just loud enough to keep you from thinking too much and to go right on ordering the whiskey".

East Texan Al Dexter had a hit with "Honky Tonk Blues", and seven years later "Pistol Packin' Mama".  These "honky tonk" songs associated with bar rooms, performed by artists like Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffin, Floyd Tillman, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, and Hank Williams, would later be called "traditional" country.

Folk
In this post World War II period "country" music was called "folk" in the trades, and "hillbilly" within the industry.  In 1944 Billboard split the term "hillbilly" into "folk songs and blues", and switched to "country" or "country and western" in 1949.

Crooners
This era brought in the fore runners of a range of country crooners. Between 1947 and 1949, country crooner Eddy Arnold had a total of 8 songs in the top 10.

Many musicians performed and recorded songs in any number of styles. Moon Mullican played Western Swing, but also recorded songs that can be called rockabilly. Bill Haley sang cowboy songs, and was at one time a cowboy yodeler.

History of Country Music 1950s