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Country Music Research Paper

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Music surrounds everyday life no matter where you are in the world. Hollow objects make notes when hit. Small wooden reeds, bamboos, and shells whistle when blown into. Anything tightly stretched twangs when plucked and the human voice has a delightful ability to go up and down at will. Even when wind rustles through the wind, birds chirp, or ocean wave’s tumbling is nature’s form of music. I constantly find myself being enthralled by the various forms music. You could say that in sense music as a whole is a form of art. The sounds that entwine harmonize, are rhythmically pleasing, have dynamics, etc., come together as a whole in order to compose a song. “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” (Confucius) …show more content…

Each style is unique in its execution, use of rhythms, and its chord structures. Country music subgenres include Nashville, Bluegrass, Western, etc. and take its roots from American folk music and Western music. Country music often entails songs of story ballads or dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments. The main instruments used in producing country music are banjos, electric or acoustic guitars, fiddles, harmonicas, etc.

“Rhythm and blues, which combines soulful singing and a strong backbeat, was the most popular music created by and for African Americans between the end of World War II (1941-45) and the early 1960s. Such Georgia artists as Ray Charles, Little Richard, and James Brown rank among the most influential and innovative R&B performers.” (Cahoon) R&B lyrical themes often summarize the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy. The lyrics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, freedom, economic standings, and

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