Country & Western Music

When the original colonists from Britain settled in this new land called America, they brought along their music. This included traditional English, Scotch and Irish dance melodies, folk songs and ballads. As the colonies grew, the population diversified, and many other types of music were imported and absorbed into the culture of this new country called the United States of America.

Rural Folk Music became "Country Music"
In the Isolated rural communities of the Southeastern and Midwestern states, many residents preserved their own local derivations of the Scotch-Irish based music. They called it "folk music", "hillbilly music" or simply "country music". This rustic music was a favorite form of entertainment at rural festivals and local barn dances. Each region independently developed its own unique style. It has always remained exclusively white folks music. Very few Afro-Americans perform or listen to country music.

The early twentieth century brought an innovation called radio that radically changed the nature of country music in the USA. Southern radio stations soon learned that their rural audiences preferred listening to local performers playing their own local music. They began broadcasting country music programs. For the first time, rural residents from across the land heard the different styles of folk music popular in various regions of the country.