Topic > The Nashville Sound and the Development of Country Music

IndexIntroductionTopic AnalysisBibliographyIntroductionThe Nashville sound isn't quite what you'd expect. The Nashville sound doesn't have fiddles and steel guitars. It's more of a refined sound with the choir singers in the background and the orchestra style playing for the instrumental part. The point was to get people to listen to them again so as to "reinvent" the genre so that it didn't sound like a bunch of backwoods farmers, but sounded grown-up and mature. This would dominate the airwaves because of musicians like Kenny Rodgers, Patsy Cline, and Eddie Arnold. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The music produced in the Nashville Sound era took influence from the pop music and jazz that were popular during that time. The songs that were released with this new sound were powerful. People listened to them and they climbed the charts, not just the national ones. These songs were the first country music songs to be hits in multiple genres. Topic Analysis There were two influential producers of this subgenre who saved country music. Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley. The music that was produced is like today's pop country in the way most people like it, but traditionalists think it's a slap in the face of country. It's ironic that people today think the Nashville sound is traditional country and when it first started coming around people thought it was a slap in the face to country music. The songs were mostly ballads. No more songs about blue collar life. The middle-class audience these songs were aimed at didn't live a life of bragging and drinking too much, and no one wanted to hear about divorce and cheating because the time these songs came out was when America was all about morality. . and right. But after a while, country music went back to those types of songs. When you think of country, the first name that comes to mind is Johnny Cash, he combined gospel and rock sounds in country songs creating what many call "Rockabilly". . Cash's life was far from easy, much of his early life consisted of helping his father on the farm and writing music. He remained in the Air Force for four years then, when he was discharged, he began to focus on his music and released a few songs but the first hit he had was "I walked the Line". As Cash's fame soared, he began to battle drug addiction. But his second wife June Carter saved him. Cash produced legendary music until his death in 2003. Willie Nelson is another country music icon. He was a singer-songwriter and also acted. Nelson wrote "Crazy" which was popularized by Patsy Cline. His most notable songs are "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" and "Don't Let Your Baby's Grow Up To Be Cowboys". In the 1980s the IRS discovered that Willie owed millions of dollars, so Willie released an album called The IRS tapes. Willie is known for smoking marijuana, so much so that Toby Keith released a song titled "I'm Never Smoking Weed With Willie Again". Merle Haggard was a musician whose music reflected his life. He sang about being in trouble with the law and having trouble with his romantic life because he was in and out of prison when he was young and during one of his sentences he discovered his wife was cheating on him. He wasn't like today's musicians who pander to the audience. Haggard lived what he sang. In 1970 the governor of California pardoned him for his crimes. The first Country Music Association awards were held in 1967. They were broadcast at various times on NBC and ABC. The awards are: Entertainer.