Traditional country music refers to any recording that emphasizes on a traditional country sound. Emphasis in doing so, is done by providing steel guitar and fiddle instrumentals throughout much or if not the entire recording. Artists who are coined "traditionalists" include but are not limited to: Hank Williams, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, John Anderson , Tracy Lawrence, Mark Chesnutt, George Strait, Keith Whitley, Randy Travis, Sammy Kershaw, Kathy Mattea, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, and more.
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Traditional country music, as stated before, emphasizes a traditional country sound. Traditionalists often reject what is known as the "Nashville Sound", which emphasizes on a more polished sound. Recordings coined under the "Nashville Sound", provide acoustic, bass, and electric guitar instrumentals along with a blend of pop. The "Nashville Sound" provides little or no steel guitar and fiddle instrumentals as artists and record companies in favor of this movement seek to move away from the honky tonk based traditional country music sound.
The Country music scene in the 30's, 40's, and 50's was dominated by artists such as Hank Williams who favored the honky tonk based traditional country music sound. Recordings from these decades prominently used the steel guitar and the fiddle as the key instruments.
The Country music scene saw a change in direction from both the artist and record company. The country music industry had only but a loyal fan base during the 30's, 40's, and early 50's. This was due to majority of Americans not being fond of the honky tonk based country music. So in order to attract a bigger fan base and to increase sales, record companies as well as artists like Chet Atkins and Dolly Parton pushed forward the "Nashville Sound".
After years of the "Nashville Sound" dominance, traditionalists began to get restless. Traditionalists claimed that country music was no longer being produced but with the help of artists such as Keith Whitley, Randy Travis, and George Strait, this was all about to change. These particular artists helped to bring back the traditional country sound by carefully crafting the steel guitar and the fiddle into their recordings. Artists such as Whitley, were able to sit down in the record booth and assert themselves more when it came to selecting the sounding of their recording. As a result, record companies un-expectantly took in the artists requests and both were able to deliver that traditional sound as well as please those who favored the pop based "Nashville Sound".
So throughout the mid and late 80's, the country music scene changed back to the honky tonk based traditional sound with the steel guitar and the fiddle being key instruments. The traditional sound was even carried on into the 90's by newcomers such as Clint Black, Tracy Lawrence, Mark Chesnutt, and others. Clint Black, a late 80's newcomer, was able to carefully fuse the traditional honky tonk sound with pop which really got the "Nashville Sound" supporters attention, thus bringing Clint Black great success.
The continuation of traditional sounding country lasted until the mid 90's, the time frame of Garth Brooks's and Shania Twain's entrance into the Country Music scene. By the mid-90's, country music artists such as Garth Brooks and Shania Twain, pushed for a polished country sound. Just like Chet Atkins and Dolly Parton, Brooks and Twain got their wish as record companies backed them. Record Companies wanted to get the younger generation involved in country music as they looked to even further expand the industry's fan base. So to increase sales and to drive the younger generation into the industry, the pop based "Nashville Sound" was in a sense, reborn.
From the late 90's and into the current decades, a rock-pop based sound of country continues to dominate the scenes,leaving traditionalists such as George Jones, Alan Jackson, and George Strait speechless. Jackson and Strait even went as far as teaming up to record what is known as "Murder on Music Row", a song about the whole situation. George Jones even spoke out against Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, telling them to find their own title.
Currently, artists such pop-rock sounding artists such as Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Zac Brown Band, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Sugarland, Lady Antebellum dominate the country music scenes. Artists such as Brad Paisley do offer a brief cry from the steel guitar, but that's not enough for him to be considered a traditionalist.