Artist Who Shaped and Popularized Country Music

Bob Wills: Western Swing Pioneer: In any social movement there is usually a dominant figure who emerges as its symbol. In the case of Texas music's most distinctive style, western swing, the symbol of the movement is the person who gave it its identity, defined its direction and popularized it on a nationwide scale.

That person was Bob Wills and the story of Bob Wills and western swing is the same. A bandleader, fiddler, singer, and songwriter, Bob Wills is the most famous exponent of the popular musical amalgam now known as western swing, which synthesized ragtime, traditional fiddling, New Orleans jazz, blues, Mexican songs and big band swing.

Wills blended it all into a swinging dance music that was wildly popular in the Southwest and on the West Coast from the 1930s into the 1950s. His greatest success was with his Texas Playboys band while based at KVOO inTulsa,Oklahoma, between 1934 and 1948. Today many of  his compositions are considered standards of country and big band music.

Bill Monroe: Bluegrass Pioneer: As singer, songwriter, bandleader, showman and instrumentalist, no individual is so closely identified with an American musical style as Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass Music. For more than half a century, he shaped bluegrass with his forceful mandolin playing; high, lonesome singing; and mastery of his band, the Blue Grass Boys.

In doing so, he gave older country sounds new life; gave the mandolin a new role as a lead instrument in country, pop and rock; and set standards for musicians as diverse as the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley and George Jones. Monroe was inducted into theCountryMusic hall of fame in 1970

Hank Williams: Honky-tonk Pioneer: Hank Williams’s legend has long overtaken the rather frail and painfully introverted man who spawned it. Almost singlehandedly, Williams set the agenda for contemporary country songcraft, but his appeal rests as much in the myth that even now surrounds his short life. His is the standard by which success is measured in country music on every level, even self-destruction.More than fifty years after his death, Williams ranks among the most powerfully iconic figures in American music.

Iconic to the point that man and myth are inextricably entwined. He set the agenda for contemporary country song-craft and sang his songs with such believability that we feel privy to his world, despite the fact that he left no in-depth interviews and just a few letters. His brief life and tragic death have only compounded his appeal. Williams was inducted into theCountryMusic hallof fame in 1961.

Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music: Kitty Wells was a thirty-three-year-old wife and mother when her immortal 1952 recording of “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” suddenly made her a star. Other female country singers of her day were trying their hands at hard-living, honky-tonk sounds, but it was the intense and piercing style of Kitty Wells, with her gospel-touched vocals and tearful restraint, that resonated with country audiences of the time and broke the industry barriers for women.

In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; and as of 2011 - at age 91 - is its oldest living member. Wells' accomplishments earned her the moniker, The Queen of Country Music.

Buck Owens: Bakersfield Sound Pioneer: Singer, songwriter and guitarist Buck Owens ruled the country music scene for a period in the mid-1960s, producing a clear, twangy, danceable sound that he repeated across dozens of chart-topping singles.

Though he would later become a fixture on television through the success of Hee Haw, Owens is best remembered by fans and those younger stars he has influenced for timeless hits like Act Naturally and Love’s Gonna Live Here. Owens pioneered a shift in country music toward the Bakersfieldsound, a raw, electrified take on traditional country that served as an alternative to the lush, string-heavy sound that dominated Nashvillein the 1960s.

While Owens originally used fiddle and retained pedal steel guitar into the 1970s, his sound on records and onstage was always more stripped-down and elemental, incorporating elements of rock and roll. His signature style was based on simple storylines, infectious choruses, an insistent rhythm supplied by a drum track placed forward in the mix and high two-part harmonies featuring Owens and his guitarist Don Rich.

Owens co-hosted the TV series Hee Haw with Roy Clark. Buck agreed to be a co-host of Hee Haw, stepping into the persona of a country rube, a role that he would later say destroyed his album sales.

Buck Owens left the cast in 1986. In 1974, the accidental death of Rich, his best friend, devastated him for years and abruptly halted his career until he performed with Dwight Yoakam in 1988. Owens was inducted into theCountryMusic hall of fame in 1996.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------Written by Richard Bell. Roots of Country Music. Country Music Historian - Nashville, Tennessee, USA. April 18, 2011.