# Rember when they said Country and Western music? Is Western music dead? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 28, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824 "2014-11-28T14:49:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/1 "2014-11-28T14:49:51Z")
Western music was always a bit hard to classify. Yodeling seemed to be its most distinctive element. Swing style was another feature? I guess because swing music was popular in the 40’s and it influenced Western. The costumes had [string ties made from shoelaces](http://joybuz.com/public_html/ebay/tiestring.jpg) or a bandana . Tex Ritter comes to mind. I think Bob Wills did some Western music? Lots of others that my dad had in his record collection. It used to be C&W Country and Western. Two genres lumped together. I can’t even find examples by searching google image for western singer I get country artists and not the old timey Western singers. Is Western music dead? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/2 "2014-11-28T14:56:07Z")
No, it’s right where we left it. I was humming Doc Watson’s “Deep River Blues” this morning. But yeah, the whole singing cowboy genre is in pretty deep storage… asking with most of what was called country in those days. ---
**Author:** ![alted315](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cc9497/32.png) [@alted315](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alted315)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/3 "2014-11-28T15:17:19Z")
" oh we like both kinds, country \* and\* western 😛 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/4 "2014-11-28T15:35:21Z")
Wikipedia calls this Western Swing music. I vaguely remember some of it called swing but not all. Tex Ritter was just regular cowboy music. > **[Western swing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_swing)** > > Western swing is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in Texas, Oklahoma and California during the 1930s and 1940s until a federal war-time nightclub tax in 1944 contributed to the genre's decline. > The movement was an outgrowth of jazz. The music is an amalgamation of rural, cowboy, polka, old-time,... Completely different from country’s roots in Appalachia and the Carter Family in the 1930’s. > [@](#): > > Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region’s Western string bands.[1][2] It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat,[3][4] which attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in Texas, Oklahoma and California during the 1930s and 40s until a federal war-time nightclub tax in 1944 led to its decline. > > The movement was an outgrowth of jazz, and similarities with Gypsy jazz are often noted. The music is an amalgamation of rural, cowboy, polka, folk, Dixieland jazz and blues blended with swing;[8] and played by a hot string band often augmented with drums, saxophones, pianos and, notably, the steel guitar.[9] The electrically amplified stringed instruments, especially the steel guitar, give the music a distinctive sound.[ ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/5 "2014-11-28T15:48:33Z")
> [@alted315](#): > > " oh we like both kinds, country \* and\* western 😛 Just to counter, I think the only instance of “Western music” I’ve ever heard is in the spoken tag end of a Jimmy Buffett song - might be “Ragtop Days” - where he’s monologuing in the background about going over the state line and “listening to some Western music.” Just not a phrasing that’s very common since C got permanently welded to W. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/6 "2014-11-28T16:02:48Z")
It went off with Rhythm music whan the Blues divorced i, too. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/7 "2014-11-28T16:18:17Z")
Now we’re going to set off a hipster trend for Rhythm & Western coffee houses. **sigh** ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/8 "2014-11-28T16:25:32Z")
Just so long as they don’t yodel. I can not stand even being in the room when that was playing on my dads stereo. It’s Worse than fingernails on a blackboard. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/9 "2014-11-28T16:30:05Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Western music was always a bit hard to classify. Yodeling seemed to be its most distinctive element. Swing style was another feature? I guess because swing music was popular in the 40’s and it influenced Western. > > The costumes had [string ties made from shoelaces](http://joybuz.com/public_html/ebay/tiestring.jpg) or a bandana . Tex Ritter comes to mind. I think Bob Wills did some Western music? Lots of others that my dad had in his record collection. I’ve always lumped Western music in with Country. To me, in the '70s, ‘Western’ was John Denver. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/10 "2014-11-28T16:53:36Z")
Bob Wills was the defining artist in Western Swing, which is fairly synonymous with Western music for modern practical purposes. For some more recent examples, try anything from Asleep at the Wheel, several by George Strait (_Ace in the Hole_ is a prime example) or Joe Diffie’s _If the Devil Danced in Empty Pockets_. All are highly danceable. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/11 "2014-11-28T17:00:37Z")
Garth Brooks usually includes a western or two on his albums, even his new one. Chris Ledoux would sing traditional western songs and then sing his own that blended western and rock. He influenced Garth in a lot of ways. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/12 "2014-11-28T17:37:03Z")
Tom Russell still sings plenty of cowboy songs, and has just released two compilations of all his Western material. In this case it’s more the lyrical theme than musical style that’s “Western”. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/13 "2014-11-28T18:02:54Z")
There are still plenty of artists who perform it, but it’s often just a part of their acts. The genre itself is now mixed into “Americana” which is the catch-all term for roots music, including Western, Bluegrass, traditional folk, Delta blues and several others. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/14 "2014-11-28T20:14:51Z")
Probably the best today, at least to me, is Asleep at the Wheel ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/15 "2014-11-28T22:43:31Z")
I strongly disagree with those citing Western Swing as synonymous, or even largely derived from, True Western. The latter is epitomized by the aforementioned Ritter plus Roy Rogers and The Sons of the Pioneers. Another modern keeper of the flame is [Michael Martin Murphey](http://www.michaelmartinmurphey.com/), who has left _Wildfire_ far behind. (Murph was also in an earier life an instigator of the Great Progressive Country Scare of the Late 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/16 "2014-11-28T23:15:49Z")
What is the difference between Country and Western? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/17 "2014-11-28T23:23:18Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > What is the difference between Country and Western? Country originally derived from the folk music of the Appalachian mountains. Western, as the name implies, came from cowboy songs and the folk music of the west. Western Swing is pretty much a mix of string band dance music (think the type of stuff you see people dancing to in Western films) and big band music, as the name kinda implies. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/18 "2014-11-29T00:57:56Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Country originally derived from the folk music of the Appalachian mountains. Western, as the name implies, came from cowboy songs and the folk music of the west. > > Western Swing is pretty much a mix of string band dance music (think the type of stuff you see people dancing to in Western films) and big band music, as the name kinda implies. Problem with that theory is that what you’re considering cowboy songs by Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Gene Autry et al are purely products of the movies. In reality, cowboys of the wild west usually just had their own twist on Appalachian and Spanish folk music. ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/19 "2014-11-29T01:26:03Z")
It’s country music that died, killed off by Chet Atkins and Nashville years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824/20 "2014-11-29T02:23:44Z")
Similarly, rock abandoned roll for awhile, but eventually roll came back. mmm [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rember-when-they-said-country-and-western-music-is-western-music-dead/705824.md?page=2)