From Hank Williams to Garth Brooks: What makes a song "country" By Jennifer Amaya
An authentic country sound can be, and most likely is, a combination of several styles of music. From it's folk-like beginning in the 1920s, to it's pop-like status today, "country," in it's whole sense, has been loaded (or, as David Brackett would say, "overcoded")1 with features of traditional ballads, blues, gospel, barndance, hymns, honkytonk, folk, swing, hillbilly, bluegrass, western, cajun, and rock-n-roll music (to name a few). With such a wide variety of accepted stylistic features, defining the country style as a whole requires looking at the similarities of the elements within all of it's substyles. What makes a song "country," then, is not as much about it's one authentic style as it is about the handling of it's elements (mostly the instrumental texture and the way the instruments are played) and it's delivery (vocal technique and artist image). Finally, while any piece of music can sound "country," not every piece of music can be country. To be country, ultimately, the lyrics must speak "country." Hank Williams Sr. (born "Hiram Hank Williams" on September 17, 1923) is considered one of country music's most authentic and successful singer-songwriters to date. When he was inducted into the country music hall of fame, his plaque read: Performing artist, songwriter…Hank Williams will live on in the memories of Americans. The simple, beautiful melodies and straightforward, plaintive stories in his lyrics, of life as he knew it, will never die. His songs appealed not only to the country music field, but brought him great acclaim in the 'pop' music world as well.2 But, while Hank Williams Sr. today is one of the main icons of country music, his popularity was not always so. His first experience in a recording studio left the impression that he sounded too much like his idol, Roy Acuff, and not enough like
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Brackett, David, Interpreting Popular Music (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995). Byworth, Tony, The History of Country & Western Music (New York: Bison Books Corp, 1984), 47.

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