It may come blasting from a truck, blaring from a bar room, or softly playing on an office speaker. Despite the wide range of country music we could isolate one characteristic that would explain the enormous popularity of country songs. The lyrics tell stories about American life (Winters 6).
Some country songs sing of work. Some tell stories of family life. Some tell stories of the past and simpler times. Most Americans want to hear a good story. It adds to the entertainment value of a song when one can relate a life experience to the story being told in a given song. One author says, "I can't understand that pop and rap music with all the screamin" and yellin". But I like country music. It always tells a real good story (Steward 1)".
If a song tells a story and it concerns ordinary people in everyday life does that make it a country song? The key to that question is the word ordinary. What is ordinary in the life of Americans? It is ordinary for people to work for a living. Most country songs are about working people; farmers, mechanics, assembly line operators, housewives, and sales people. The songs that make people feel proud of their jobs, rather than feel negative about them. When Garth Brooks sings "Friends in Low Places", he certainly sings from an ordinary perspective. Nobody mistake his lines as being for the high society, in fact makes fun of the upper class.
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Where did country music come from and what led it to where it is today? Country music began in rural America. James Charles Rodgers was known as the "Father of Country Music". He was born in Meridian, Mississippi on September 8, 1897. Although some musicians had been playing what was then known as "Old Time Music", it wasn't until August 1, 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee, that country music really began. James Charles Rodgers added his unique singing style to the old time fiddle music and country music was born. Everyone loved his sentimental ballads and country music grew and spread very rapidly.
