I think it is clear what “Country” music is – Nashville and the Grand Ol Opry and such.
I know they have changed the name, and now they even have just the Country Music Awards (minus Western).
But what is “Western” music in Country and Western? And does this category even exist anymore?
I have oft wondered this too. I had presumed that ‘Western’ was cowboy music.
Marty Robbins and Buck Owens were Western. Dwight Yokum currently is. Vince Gil could be considered kind of Western.
Basically, if it’s from the Western states, or if it’s kind of twangy, it could be Western. Of course, other people will have different explanations…
I think country and western is just an outmoded name for the genre… I grew up a country fan and never heard it referred to C&W except by older people.
Nowadays, the only time I see it referred to as such is in places like here.
Singers like Vince Gill are also sometimes called the “High and Lonesome” sound. Yokum’s stuff is pretty lonesome, too. So, maybe the idea of cowboys on the range is an apt description.
But, like Aes brought out, it’s all still called Country now. I’ve run across the term C&W recently only in very small markets, like rural panhandle Texas AM radio. The radio station hadn’t changed their promos in 30 years, I’d bet. Larger markets, like an actual city, will call all of it Country.
I think the genre name change probably happened in the late 70s, early 80s. I still remember Houston AM stations calling it C&W when I was living there in the 70s. When I finally found KIKK/FM (Houston) in the 80s, they called it Country.
And, like I said in the other post, small markets with little oro change still call it C&W as late as this Summer. But, they were also playing Patsy Kline and Mel Tillis, if that don’t tell you something…
IIRC, “Country & Western” was a term invented in the 1940s by Billboard Magazine to replace their previous, more offensive term “hillbilly music”. Around the same time, they came up with the term “Rhythm & Blues” to replace “race music” (what is rhythm music? Don’t most musical forms have rhythm of some kind?).
I don’t have time to search for a cite, so if I’m only repeating an urban (rural?) legend, please call me on it.
IIRC, I once heard Mary Chapin Carpenter give a similar expanation on the Letterman show, but that the term was coined by someone in promotions at a record company.
For that matter, what is Roll music? 
“High lonesome sound” is more often used to describe a tenor harmony that’s a major fourth above the melody, most common in bluegrass songs. The term comes from Bill Monroe’s song “High Lonesome Sound.” In the song, the phrase refers to the high keening of a fiddle. Whether bluegrass harmonies or the inclusion of a fiddle makes something “western” vice “country”, I am not qualified to say.
Polka, obviously.
Now the industry’s name for that genre is changing to Americana.
That’s a horrible name.
Jurph, that may be technically correct, but Vince has been called a high lonesome sound since he first came on to the scene. Perhaps popular usage and musicology usage of the term will just have to differ this slight bit. Either way, it’s all good as long as they don’t go to the horrible term Americana.
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy]
I think the genre name change probably happened in the late 70s, early 80s. I still remember Houston AM stations calling it C&W when I was living there in the 70s. When I finally found KIKK/FM (Houston) in the 80s, they called it Country.
[QUOTE]
We called it “Country” in Nashville in the 60s.
My guess is that the Skillet Lickers and Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys were dissimilar enough to be considered separate genres, and the more inclusive term would emcourage stations to play both types. Sort of like “oldies” stations that play both Bob Seger and Gloria Gaynor.
Bob Wills is technically “Texas Swing.” Just to add to the confusion.
Yeah, but you can really hear echoes of him in George Straight and Lyle Lovett.
“We play both kinds of music. Country and Western.”
Once upon a time there actually was “western” music, not to be confused with bluegrass, blues, gospel, honket-tonk, Cajun, Tex-Mex or any of the subgenres that make up “country.” Another name for it was “cowboy.”
Look for a high harmony, string bass, no horns (maybe a single trumpet), a general theme of loneliness and an occasional yodel.
If you listen to much country music from the 40s, you’ll find that a LOT of it was “Western,” singing-cowboy stuff. Just a few examples of “Western” hits of the era:
“(Ghost) Riders in the Sky”
“I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart”
“Cool Water”
“Tumbing Tumbleweeds”
“Deep in the Heart of Texas”
“Singing in the Saddle”
“Back in the Saddle Again”
You had such cowboy acts as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Sons of the Pioneers, and Tex Ritter on the charts.
In fact, “Western” themes were so ascendant in that era (largely due to the influence of Hollywood) that Hank Williams named his band “The Drifting Cowboys” despite the fact that he hailed from southern Alabama-- not exactly the western frontier.
By the 60s the Western fad was fading fast, making the phrase “Country-Western music” something of an anachronism.
Western refers to Western Country.
“Country” music has four distinct styles:
Honky Tonk Country
Western Country *
Rockabilly Country
Nashville Country
In the early part of the 20th century, when the term Country & Western came about, Honky Tonk was the Country, and Western (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and the like) was, well, the Western in Country & Western.