Sounds of Country Ask people “what is country music?” and you are likely to get a wide variety of answer. With so many different theories about how the music developed and who the best musicians are, everyone has their own definition of the sound and style of country! Country encompasses a range of musical styles from “hillbilly” and “honky-tonk” to traditional Irish folk music and modern pop. Even rock bands like The Rolling Stones have recorded songs that could be classified as country. Although the traditions of country music can be traced back over the centuries, the term “country” is a relatively modern invention. In 1944, the American popular music magazine, Billboard, started listing the “most played folk records” on jukeboxes in America. By the late 1940s “folk” was replaced by “country and western” records. The “western” part of the title was dropped in 1962 when the Billboard chart was renamed “Hot Country Singles”. In Britain the music is still referred to as “country and western”. But if you were to use this term in Nashville, USA, the home of country music, people would wonder where you had been all these years. Country music owes a lot to the folk songs which were brought across the Atlantic by British emigrants and passed down the generations. These songs told stories about love, family life and tragedy. Country songs tell colorful stories about the trials of real life, tragic tales of heartbreak, marital problems, poverty, and even death. Country stars like Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, John Denver and Dolly Parton have close relationship with their audiences and they have taken county music to new fans all over the world.