History
"Country USA" was first issued during the summer of 1988, and is pattered after Time-Life's successful "Rock'n'Roll Era" and "Your Hit Parade" series. It represented Time-Life's first real attempt at chronicling country music's post-1950 history; earlier in the 1980s, Time-Life had a budget "Country Series" and the later "Country & Western Classics."
During its peak, the "Country USA" series was advertised in television and magazine advertisements. The series was available by subscription (by calling a 1-800 number); those who purchased the series in that fashion received a new volume roughly every other month (on the format of their choice), and had the option of keeping just the volumes they wanted. Each volume was also offered for individual sale.
New volumes continued to be issued through 1991. Another series, "Contemporary Country," essentially picked up where "Country USA" left off, as that series covered the 1970s through early 1990s.
Time-Life continued to offer "Country USA" through the early first decade of the 21st century. The series has essentially been replaced by "Classic Country." Three newer series — "Country Gold," "Superstars of Country" and "Lifetime of Country Romance" — have also since been issued.
Critics widely hailed "Country USA" as a definitive overview of the genre during what some refer to as the Golden Age. In many cases, the songs offered on each volume represented the first time they had ever been re-released on compact disc. However, critics tempered their praise by pointing out a few minor faults, such as the exclusion of some tracks (in lieu of songs that weren't necessarily hits) and alternate versions/re-recordings of some hits.
Read more about this topic: Country USA (Time-Life Music)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)
“You that would judge me do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)