Western Music (North America)
Western music originated as a form of American folk music. It was originally composed by and about the people who settled and worked throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Directly related musically to old English, Scottish, and Irish folk ballads, Western music celebrates the life of the cowboy on the open ranges and prairies of Western North America. The Mexican music of the American Southwest also influenced the development of this genre. Western music shared similar roots with Appalachian folk music ("hillbilly music"), which developed in Appalachia separately from, but parallel to, the Western music genre. The music industry of the mid-20th century lumped the two together under the banner of "country and western music," later amalgamating into modern country music.
Read more about Western Music (North America): Origins, Mainstream Popularity, Decline in Popularity, Rediscovery, List of Western Songs, List of Western Singers
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or music:
“It’s a queer sensation, this secret belief that one stands on the brink of the world’s greatest catastrophe. For it means the fall of Western Europe, as it fell in the fourth century. It recurs to me every November, and culminates every December. I have to get over it as I can, and hide, for fear of being sent to an asylum.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.”
—Thomas Beecham (1879–1961)