Wannabe Singers

Singers Who Weren’t Country

Original Country Music (OCM) is a type of music that has a unique sound and style with a blend of musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. It evolved from folk music, gospel music and old-time or hillbilly music in the 1920s.

The term country music began to surface in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music was considered degrading. Currently it is referred to as original country music (coined by Ray Price), thereby distinguishing it from the current pop oriented sound.

Traditional artists had a distinctive sound, a sort of brand that made them easily identifiable from their peers. Hank Williams, Ray Price, Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline all had distinguishable voices as did their peers. Country music began to drift away from its traditional roots and transition toward a soft pop sound (commonly referred to as alternative country) in the Eighties.

By the early-1990s, a flurry of new artists helped transform country music beyond its original identity. Many of those singers as wells as many who have since broke into the business have indistinguishable voices. While Olvia Newton-John, Juice Newton, Marie Osmond, Linda Ronstadt and Debby Boone are accomplished singers in the pop-rock field, they clearly “Weren’t Country Before or AFTER Country Music Was Cool.”

Following are the top-five female pop-rock folk singers who had the greatest impact on moving country music beyond its traditional roots toward a pop oriented sound during the 1970s and 1980s.

Debby Boone is a pop singer and theater actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then-record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart and won her a Grammy Award the following year for Best New Artist. In the 1980s, her music career first focused on country music. She later recorded Christian music which garnered her four top-ten Contemporary Christian albums as well as two Grammys. Throughout her career, Boone has appeared in several musical theater productions and has co-authored many children's books with her husband, Gabriel Ferrer.

Juice Newton is a pop singer, songwriter and guitarist. When she splashed onto the country scene in the early 1980s, Newton was a pop rocker. Her voice was not suited for traditional country music, but then traditional country music was on its way out by that time. Thanks to Capitol Records and later RCA, Newton was one several pop singers who helped move country music away from its traditional roots toward a pop trends. She charted fourteen top-ten hits across the Billboard Country, AC, and Hot 100 chart, with many of the recordings achieving crossover status.

Linda Ronstadt is a folk-pop music recording artist who was an exponent of the West Coast pop rock sound. One of the top pop acts of the 1970s, Ronstadt with her powerful voice, gained popularity and attention as a crossover artist. Since then, she has branched out into pop standards, Spanish language folk songs and even lullabies. Her many vocal styles and performances in a variety of genres have resonated with the general public over the decades.

Marie Osmond is an actress, singer, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s. Her best known song is a cover of the country pop ballad "Paper Roses." In 1976, she and her singer brother Donny Osmond began hosting the TV variety show Donny & Marie.

Olvia Newton-John is an English-born, Australian-raised singer and actress. At a time when many of Nashville’s old guard were already complaining that pop trends were invading their territory and stealing valuable airtime, from traditional country music singers, Newton-John poped her voice onto the country charts.

Olvia's music has been successful in multiple formats including pop, country and adult contemporary. She co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Grease, which became one of the most successful films and movie soundtracks in Hollywood history. When she won the coveted “Female Vocalist of the Year” award in 1974, the Country Music Association (CMA) was widely criticized by many sectors of the country music industry.

Male Singers Who Weren’t Country 

Following are the top-five male pop-rock folk singers who had the greatest impact on moving country music beyond its traditional roots toward a pop oriented sound during the 1970s and 1980s. 

Billy Crash Craddock - Billy is a rockabilly singer who first gained popularity in Australia in the 1950s with a string of rockabilly hits, including the Australian number one hit "Boom Boom Baby." He gained popularity in United States in the 1970s with a string of top ten hits, three of which were number one hits, including "Rub It In," "Broken Down in Tiny Pieces" and "Ruby Baby. “ Craddock is known for his up-tempo rock-influenced style of music.

Craddock became somewhat of sex symbol, who dressed in stage clothes exposing his hairy, muscular chest as he growled his way through rocking numbers and love songs with a stage persona strongly influenced by Elvis Presley. All told, Craddock landed in the country top-ten a total of 18 times from 1971-1979. He recorded for Capitol during the late '70s and early '80s, by which time his commercial momentum had finally dwindled.

Billy Ray Cyrus - Cyrus is a pop-oriented music singer, who helped transform country music beyond its traditional identity. There seems to be no middle ground when it comes Cyrus, either you love the guy or despise him. He is best known for his number one single "Achy Breaky Heart."  Spending five weeks at the top of the country charts the song made his debut album, Some Gave All, a blockbuster success.

By the time it fell off the charts, it had sold over nine million copies. Despite his attempts, Cyrus wasn't able to replicate the success of Some Gave All. He quickly followed the album with It Won't Be the Last in the summer of 1993. Initially, the album sold well, but it fell far short of expectations by only reaching platinum status. By the time it finished its chart run, Cyrus had slipped from the public's eye.

Garth Brooks - Brooks' integration of rock elements into his recordings and live performances earned him immense popularity. This progressive approach allowed him to dominate the charts while crossing over into the mainstream pop arena. Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s.

According to Nielsen Sound Scan, his album sales through the end of 2009 are at 68,363,000, which makes him the best-selling albums artist in the United States; a title held since 1991, well over 7 million ahead of his nearest rival, The Beatles.

With the exception of his debut singles “Much Too Young" and "If Tomorrow Never Comes;" Brooks abandoned traditional country music and ventured into an area that was previously unconventional and taboo in the country music arena.

Gary Morris - Even though Morris is best-known for pop-oriented hits in the 1980s, he descended from a long line of traditional country singers, who sang hard-twang country and also gospel. Morris’ voice wasn’t well suited for traditional mainstream country music. Morris had a powerful voice well suited to the musical theater stage, and after his string of country hits came to an end he enjoyed a successful theatrical career. Gary is known for the 1983 ballad "The Wind Beneath My Wings

Throughout his career, Gary never strayed from his pop-oriented persona. He charted pop-oriented hits between 1980 and 1991. Morris later took a break from touring to pursue an acting career.

Kenny Rogers - Kenny is a adult-contemporary-pop music singer and songwriter who began his career in the mid-1950s, when he recorded with a doo-wop group called The Scholars. In 1966, he joined The New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player. Rogers and his fellow members left the group. They formed The First Edition in 1967 (later renamed "Kenny Rogers and The First Edition).

They chalked up a few minor pop and country hits. After leaving The First Edition (1976), Rogers signed a solo deal with United Artists. Although producer Larry Butler had no doubts aboutRogers's talent, he was advised by several colleagues not to signRogers, who some saw as a has-been. Nevertheless,Butler and Rogers began a partnership that would last four years.

Rogers first outing for his new label was Love Lifted Me. The album charted and two singles "Love Lifted Me" and "While The Feeling's Good" were minor hits. Kenny grew to symbolize some of the most troubling, pop-infatuated directions country music was taking during the late-70s and early-80s.

Kenny led the pack ofNashvillesingers who set their musical sights on crossover success in the pop music market.Rogerscharted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres and topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in theUnited Statesalone.

Tom Jones - Tom is a Welsh pop singer particularly noted for his powerful voice. Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung nearly every form of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel. Since 1965, Jones has sold over 100 million records.

In 1976, he brought his pop-oriented act into the country charts with “Say You’ll Stay Until Tomorrow.”  With his musical sights set on crossover success, Jones placed sixteen singles on the country charts during the next nine years and then completely disappeared from the country music arena.

Writtebn by: Richard Bell, Country Music Historian, Roots of Country Music. Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Apr., 2011