Country music is more popular today than ever before. With the amazing crossover success of artists such as Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift, many people think that country is a relatively new kind of music. This could not be farther from the truth; country music got its start in the United Stated back in the 1930s. The history of country music is very important if you want to be able to see how it got to where it is today.

Country music started out being called honky tonk when it first got started in the 30s. It was easy to tell it apart from other genres of music because of the steel guitar and drums. The popular artists of the day were Hank Williams, Sr. and Ernest Tubbs, but the first to call it honky tonk was Al Dexter; he referred to honky tonk in almost all of his songs.

As the 1940s started, the music evolved into what might be called western music. Most of the music was about being a cowboy, such as the music of Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. These were mostly lonely sounding songs.

Country music today is almost impossible to tell apart from other popular styles of music. The roots of country are still there, like the steel guitar and the twang in the melody, but the songs themselves are modern sounding, more like pop with a twang. Because country music has moved more toward the mainstream, it has become more popular than ever before.

To understand how country got to where it is today, it is important to understand where it came from. There are still influences that show up from the original honky tonk from the 1930s. Contemporary country would not be what it is without the great musicians and singers from the past 80 years.