Country

Country music is a sprawling genre covering more than a century and pre-dating recorded music. Originating in Appalachia and the American South, it has its history in European Americans adapting Irish Folk Music and English Folk Music. The first widely available recordings of the style, which emphasized fiddles, guitars, and banjos along with other string instruments were made in the early 1920s. Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family became the genre's first national stars in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Their styles of Country Yodeling and Country Gospel came to be known as Traditional Country. In the 1930s and 1940s, as the form began to move in different directions, the dominant styles were Western Swing (e.g. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys) and Honky Tonk (e.g. Ernest Tubb). Bluegrass remained a popular form of traditional country even as it evolved in sophistication from Bill Monroe to Flatt and Scruggs. Early country music was also called American Folk Music or hillbilly music, and that's reflected in the first Billboard jukebox charts in the 1940s. The first jukebox country charts, which were published as "juke box folk records" or "juke box hillbilly records" until 1949, became the Country & Western chart.