Congress has formally recognized Bristol, Tennessee as the "Birthplace of Country Music", based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. In the Southwestern United States, it was the Rocky Mountains, American frontier, and Rio Grande that acted as a similar backdrop for Native American, Mexican, and cowboy ballads, which resulted in New Mexico music and the development of Western music, and its directly related Red Dirt, Texas country, and Tejano music styles. As the country expanded westward, the Mississippi River and Louisiana became a crossroads for country music, giving rise to Cajun music. Immigrants to the southern Appalachian Mountains, of the Southeastern United States, brought the folk music and instruments of Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin along with them for nearly 300 years, which developed into Appalachian music. Country music was "introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon." The main components of the modern country music style date back to music traditions throughout the Southern United States and Southwestern United States, while its place in American popular music was established in the 1920s during the early days of music recording. Main articles: Appalachian music, Blues, Celtic folk, Old-time music, and Western music (North America)
It has been inspired by American popular music, and American folk music which had its roots mostly from Irish and Northern Spaniard folk music from Celtic music, early music of the British Isles, jota, singing cowboys, corrido, ranchera, norteño, French folk music, African-American music, and other traditional folk music traditions. The origins of country music are found in the folk music of working class Americans and blue-collar American life. The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres.
In 2009, in the United States, country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, and second most popular in the morning commute. The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to hillbilly music it came to encompass Western music, which evolved parallel to hillbilly music from similar roots, in the mid-20th century. Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its recorded history. Its popularized roots originate in the Southern and Southwestern United States of the early 1920s.Ĭountry music often consists of ballads and dance tunes (most commonly known as "Honky Tonk music") with generally simple forms, folk lyrics, and harmonies often accompanied by string instruments such as electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitars (such as pedal steels and dobros), banjos, and fiddles as well as harmonicas. Arthur continues to expand his sound, evidenced on his third album, 2019’s You, which features visits from American hip-hop artist Ty Dolla $ign and members of Taking Back Sunday and Blink-182.Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated with blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old-time, and American folk music forms including Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, and the cowboy Western music styles of New Mexico, Red Dirt, Tejano, and Texas country. His 2013 follow-up, Back from the Edge, became an even bigger success than its predecessor. Both Arthur’s second single, “You’re Nobody ’Til Somebody Loves You”, and his self-titled debut album blasted off to huge success, and it became obvious Arthur was sticking around. Shortly after, Simon Cowell’s Syco label released the single, which became a record-breaking blockbuster and transformed Arthur-24 at the time-into an instant pop star. Arthur’s life was forever altered the following year when he competed on Season 9 of The X Factor, winning with the Shontelle song “Impossible”.
Before he conquered the UK, Arthur-who was born in Middlesbrough in 1988-sang for a series of rock bands from his mid teens into his early 20s, and in 2011 he began operating under his own name, blending pop, soul and hip-hop influences and releasing songs on YouTube and SoundCloud. The heavily tatted, broad-shouldered young man brooding on the cover of James Arthur’s first two albums might look more like a bruiser than a crooner, but that combination of grit and sensitivity defines this British pop phenomenon’s soulful singing style.