Re: What is an "ountry"?
> Anyway, if you know anything about the history of popular music (blues,
> folk, country, rock) you'll know that music knows no boundaries or
> borders.
> I agree that the state of (what they call) "country music" today
> is very sad, especially if you are talking about that schlock at the top
> of the charts. However, the ballads, the true folk music, fed the blues
> and country music which became rock and roll. Our music (UK, USA) comes
> from the same roots, except that America created acoustic blues. The roots
> of this music were African, but it was played on instruments which were
> definitely European in origin. Really you should study this. It is
> fascinating. There is music from Africa that sounds very much like rock
> and roll, very much like blues.
> There is no truly British music today. Please understand my point. All of
> the greatest rock and roll, in my opinion, is British, or heavily
> influenced by British musicians. But where did their influence come from?
> America! (Which got it's influences from Africa and Europe mostly.)
> So where does that leave us?
> While there may be certain characteristics that make modern rock music
> sound American or British, there truly is no music that exists in a vacuum
> with no influences. It is meaningless to compare British and American
> music as if they had never influenced each other.
> Please read Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone, the story of the Carter
> Family. It is a great book, very entertaining and full of drama, but at
> the same time it is a history of the beginning of popular music. In the
> 1920's when The Carter Family were the hottest band in the US, the upper
> classes were listening to European music, either classical music or opera.
> That's fine if you like it but it isn't rock and roll and without a few of
> these country bumpkins who were mixing gospel, blues, and European
> ballads, there would have been no country music. Without country, blues,
> gospel, and the whole spectrum being played on southern radio (US) there
> would have been no rockabilly, no Johnny Cash, no Elvis, no Chuck Berry.
> Without them we would have still had white music and black music. (Well
> someone else would have come along eventually...) Anyway, when you talk
> about British music, unless you are talking about authentic period music
> played on authentic period instruments (by authentic period people,
> really) you aren't talking about anything because it doesn't exist
> anymore.
Well, I was scared to open this reply for fear of more abuse, however, you do make a good argument.
I know you can't really define music as "British" or we would be back to henry v111 and greensleeves and yet, if he did pen that tune, he was a better musician than monarch.
Anyway, I know the history all started with the "blues", my only point being,those who emerged from the period were over abundantly British.
