Country Music: The Wild Country Guide

1920s: the first recordings

In the summer of 1927, Victor Records producer Ralph Peer set up a makeshift studio in Bristol, on the Tennessee–Virginia line, and recorded local musicians over about two weeks. The Bristol Sessions introduced the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, and Johnny Cash later called them “the single most important event in the history of country music.” (Smithsonian)

Radio makes it national

Radio carried country out of the hills. WSM in Nashville launched its WSM Barn Dance on November 28, 1925, and announcer George D. Hay renamed it the Grand Ole Opry in December 1927. The Opry still broadcasts every week. (Grand Ole Opry)

1940s–50s: honky-tonk

After the war, country moved into the bars. Honky-tonk swapped the fiddle-band sound for steel guitar, a shuffle beat and songs about drinking and heartbreak, and Hank Williams became its defining voice. (Country Music Hall of Fame)

Late 1950s–60s: the Nashville sound and Bakersfield

Nashville producers Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins smoothed country out with strings, background vocals and polished production, the Nashville sound behind Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves. (Tennessee Encyclopedia) Out in California, Buck Owens and the Bakersfield sound answered with loud, twangy Telecasters. (Country Music Hall of Fame)

1970s: the outlaws

Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and friends pushed back against the Nashville system and recorded their own way. Their 1976 compilation Wanted! The Outlaws became the first country album certified platinum. (American Songwriter)

1980s to now: neotraditional, superstars and crossovers

George Strait and Randy Travis brought the fiddle and steel back in the 1980s, while Alabama showed a self-contained band could top the charts. The 1990s turned country into arena music, led by Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn and Shania Twain. Since then the genre has kept widening: country pop from Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts, country rock from Jason Aldean, and genre-blending hits from Jelly Roll and Shaboozey. Our history of country music goes deeper.