Americas Twentieth Century Country Music - Essay Example

America’s Twentieth Century Country Music One of the most admired forms of modern music is country or western music. The music actually began in 1920s. Country originally was composed by people who lived throughout Western Canada and Western US. The music is known to be directly related to old Irish, Scottish and English folk ballads. The music as it is known even today celebrates a lot with respect to open ranges, cowboys’ lives and the prairies of North America. Although greatly influenced by the aforementioned groups, country has also been impacted to some extent by Mexican music. During the 20s, time folk music was most appreciated and a lot of people praised it. Country music was a coalition of different forms of music which were blended together to bring out a distinctive kind of sound. The sound of country music became more and more popular to an extent that many other artists started singing country songs (Steward 2002). In the 1970s country achieved great popularity. Some of the converted popular singers of country included Kenny Rogers, Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, and Conway Twitty among others. Many country artists launched popular albums which were greatly successful, still remembered to date. Today’s more contemporary country music is seen to be more popular than those of the 20s and 30s. This is partly because of the better or more advanced instruments which are currently used by the day’s artists in the music industry. According to Henry and Gilliland (2001), the pioneers of country music laid down a very strong foundation for its existences in the coming centuries. This was evident in the late 1980s and 1990s, when there was a population outburst on the importance of country music. Some of the popular artists like Kenny Rodger, commonly referred to as the father of the country music, tried their level best to improve the perception of the music. Rogers used to perform dressed in cowboy grabs, his performance attracting a lot of people in across the world. Despite all that was done by country music artists to retain the popularity of the music, its decline in recent times is quit evident. Factors Leading to a Decline of Country Music in Twentieth Century America Van der Merwe (3) believes that in the 20th century, there were different factors which lead to the decline of country music in the world. First, Americans adopted European civilization and embraced the authority derived from education. American citizens also wanted to do things their own way which impacted country music among other arts. This led majority of the artists to change the way they used to sing country songs. Due to this basic reason, country music started fading away from the limelight slowly by slowly. The second major reason for the decline of country music was the concept of entrepreneurship which had been in existence in USA for a long time. Entrepreneurial endeavors mainly were targeted at moderate earners in the country; common citizens and those one who had no jobs. In the USA the entrepreneurs realized that there was cash to be earned, not by selling a lot of products to the rich people but also selling services. The idea was to sell products and services to people of low class at low prices. By so doing, they ended up making good money because people ended up consuming a lot of these products and services. Furthermore, the US initiated new trade routes for its ships from USA to Britain. Initiating the new routes was seen as a move targeting the moderate people in the according to McLeod and Kembrew (59). According to Moore and Allan (432), the third reason behind the decline of county was all about the documentation of country music songs. Before the introduction of the system of documentation, majority of the creators of famous songs did not understand how to put them down. This fact simply meant that their music could not reach many countries all over the world. Those who managed to move from one country to another took a lot of time and spent a lot in resources. When a proper system of documentation came into force, the famous songs were heard even in foreign countries without much ado. McLeod and Kembrew (59) argue that the introduction of the modern documentation of country music was not easy because most people were used to traditional methods. Due to the gradual introduction of the modern format of documenting music, a lot of country music which were not recorded disappearing. After sometime, country music was noted to be overtaken by the events. No one who took necessary measures to improve the remaining songs and even to cultivate them with an aim of fitting them with modern technology. Steward (2002) claims that one other factor that led to the decline of country music was the existence of age gap. People between the ages of 18and 29 years for some reason tended to perceive country music as an industry or sector that was meant for the old. This was so because of the slow and gentle nature of the music. Those within the aforementioned age group desired songs with a higher tempo and that were vibrant in nature. In America fast music is commonly played in many clubs because the youth who commonly patronize the clubs tend to prefer music with higher tempo. As a result, country music has ended up being little appreciated by many people. Even those one who used to worship country ended up getting to prefer to other kinds of music with time. This especially was the case since many country music artists shifted their positions and delighted more in other genres of music. Many commentators have claimed that the original country composed and played from the 20s through to the 70s was great in terms of melody and lyrics. Today however, this is not longer the case as artists no longer use captivating lyrics in their compositions. Furthermore, many of the current artists lack originality, evident in the fact that most of them tend to ape other more distinguished artists hence losing touch with their individuality. Country is in fact under ruin due to the attempt by some artists to commercialize it like many pop artists tend to do. Country music is viewed as an industry which tends to satisfy the feelings of spectators as well as those who tend to worship the music. These spectators have failed to promote the music, instead only recognizing it without doing much to help its improvement. Since country music is less commonly played on radio, it tends to catch and satisfy the feelings of only a few individuals. This is mainly the case because most of the songs are not recorded in video form as opposed to many other genres. Recording the music in video would help bolster their popularity as they would get to be played not only on radio but also on television. One other problem that has faced country music is lack of marketing and formation of bands. Most county music artists have not bought the idea of marketing their music by touring different places as they present their works because they feel that it is expensive and would lead to losses. Others believe that smaller bands tend to perform better than bigger ones and so opt to remain small without really appreciating the negative effects of this stance. (Henry & Gilliland 15). The bands that have engaged in touring different places and making presentations according to Henry and Gilliland (16) have ended up making great strides and growing in fame and success. Having been destroyed massively during the American Civil War, Tennesse has yet to recover from its ruins. This effectively has contributed to the decline of country as most of Tennessee – a place where country has been a long standing darling - residents have to do without good infrastructure and a stable economy. Conclusion Although much loved by many even to-date, country or western music has seen great declines in terms of popularity in the United Sates of America. Greatly associated with cowboys, horse riding, country serenity, the prairies and slow tempo, the genre had its best of times from the 20s through to the 70s. A number of factors have been associated with the decline of the genre including lack of originality among upcoming and current artists, the tendency of young people to prefer music of higher tempo as well as the conservative nature of its musicians in terms of embracing technology and new marketing strategies. Although this is the case, the commercialization of the genre by some artists has tended to erode its popularity. Yet again, some people have considered the tendency of current artists to liken their music to such genres as Blues, RnB and rock have contributed significantly to the decline of country. This is because most of its lovers in the United Sates are old conservative folks who prefer the slow rhythm of original country to the fast tempo of the other genres. Work Cited HenryGilliland. Country Music Annual 2001. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press. 2001. McLeod, Kembrew. "Genres, Sub-Genres, Sub-Sub-Genres: Sub-Genre Naming In Electronic/Dance Music". Journal of Popular Music Studies. 2001.(13) pp59–75. Moore Allan “Categorical Convertion in Music Discorce: Style and Genre” Music and Letter. Vol. 82, No. 3 (Aug., 2001), pp. 432-442. Scaruffi Piero. A history of 20th Century Popular Music.2005. Web Steward R. The History of Country Music. 2002. Web. Van der Merwe. Origins of the Popular Style: The Antanddececedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. 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