 Country Music
in the 1950's
Nashville
Beginning in the mid 1950s, and reaching its peak during the
early 1960s, the "Nashville Sound" turned country music into a
multimillion-dollar industry centered on Nashville, Tennessee.
Under the direction of producers such as Chet Atkins, Owen
Bradley, and later Billy Sherrill, the "Nashville sound"
brought country music to a diverse audience and helped revive
country as it emerged from a commercially fallow period.
This sound was notable for borrowing from 1950s pop
stylings: a prominent and "smooth" vocal, backed by a string
section and vocal chorus. Instrumental soloing was
de-emphasized in favor of trademark "licks". Leading artists in
this genre included Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and later Tammy
Wynette and Charlie Rich. The "slip note" piano style of
session musician Floyd Cramer was an important component of
this style.
For several decades Nashville session players preferred the
warm tones of the Gibson and Gretsch archtop electrics, but
Fender style guitars which became available beginning in the
early 1950s, eventually prevailed as the signature guitar sound
of country music.
Rockabilly
1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country
music. The number 2, 3, and 4 songs on Billboard's charts for
that year are: Elvis Presley "Heartbreak Hotel", Johnny Cash "I
Walk the Line", and Carl Perkins "Blue Suede Shoes". Cash and
Presley would place songs in the top 5 in 1958 with #3 "Guess
Things Happen That Way/Come In, Stranger" by Cash, and #5 by
Presley "Don't/I Beg Of You".
Presley acknowledged the influence of rhythm and blues
artists and his style, "The colored folk been singin' and
playin' it just the way I'm doin' it now, man for more years
than I know." But he also said, "My stuff is just hopped-up
country."
Country music gained widespread television exposure through
the Ozark Jubilee, a live ABC-TV (and radio) network program
broadcast from 1955–1960 from Springfield, Missouri. The
program showcased a Who's Who of country music, including many
rockabilly artists.
By the end of the decade, traditional artists such as Ray
Price, Marty Robbins, and Johnny Horton began to shift the
industry away from the Rock n' Roll influences of the mid-50's.
What is now most commonly referred to as rockabilly was most
popular with country music fans in the 1950s. Within a few
years many rockabilly musicians returned to a more mainstream
style, or had defined their own unique style.
Bakersfield Sound
Bakersfield, California gave rise to one of the next genres
of country music. This sound grew out of hardcore honky tonk
with elements of Western swing, and was influenced by one time
West Coast residents Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell.
By 1966 it was known as the Bakersfield Sound. The
Bakersfield Sound relied on electric instruments and
amplification, in particular the Telecaster electric guitar,
more than other subgenres of country of the era, and can be
described as having a sharp, hard, driving, no-frills, edgy
flavor. Leading practitioners of this style were Buck Owens,
Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins, and Wynn Stewart, each of whom
had his own style.
History of Country Music
1960 - 1970
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