How Country Music Began - A Brief History

Some people love country music, some people hate country music but most people like country music. With its simple melodies and catchy tunes country music has always found a way into most peoples lives in one form or another. 

How did it all start? Was it always like this or has it evolved much over the years?

An unlikely mixture of traditional folk music from the British Isles, African slave music and other ethnic sounds are believed to be the origins of country music. These tunes, generally played on homemade banjos and fiddles, began their long journey to what we now call country by many twists and turns, with a number of different styles emerging as a result.

Although very early recordings of Southern Appalachian fiddle playing (made around 1910) were discovered, more traditional country sounds and better recording techniques didn’t appear until the early 1920’s.

Eck Robertson and Vernon Dalhart were early pioneers of recording country music with some success, but it wasn’t until Victor Records signed The Carter Family and Jimmie Rogers that things started to happen on the country scene.

Simply called ‘The Carter Family’, they were the first family vocal group to record what we now know as country music. They also developed a new style of playing the acoustic guitar, known as ‘Carter Picking’, and this method became very popular amongst upcoming musicians for many years.

As well as the ‘Carter Picking’ guitar style, The Carter Family sang all  their songs in a simple harmony that also became very popular with other ‘family’ groups during the 30’s and 40’s, and it’s believed this influenced many other styles such as folk, bluegrass and rock during this period.

With the signing up of both the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers by Victor Records, country music was now officially born.

Known as the "Father of Country Music," Jimmie Rodgers was an instant success and is credited with the first million-selling single, “Blue Yodel #1.”

His complete catalog of songs, all recorded between 1927 and 1933, established Jimmie as the number one voice in country music. Sadly Jimmie Rodgers died from tuberculosis in 1933 after suffering complications.