I mean, it’s pretty easy to distinguish when you hear the songs, although there is certainly some grey area. But bands of these categories all seem to use the instruments, equipment, etc. Are there any characteristics that clearly define one vs. the other?
My entirely uninformed and bad understanding:
Country music centers around acoustic guitars, which are limited in how loud they can be; thus limiting the number and types of other instruments that can accompany the guitars. This (as far as I poorly understand) limits the range of sounds that can be produced.
Rock and roll (and the more general outgrowth of Rock) music was started by, and centers around, electric guitars. Which not only can be much louder, but can produce much wider variation of sounds. This has the knock-on affect that you can pair the electric guitar with a much wider array of instruments.
I think theme is complicated. Here I think there is a major difference between Rock and Rock and Roll. My bad understanding is that both Country and Rock and Roll tend to conform to typical majority american ideals (rock and roll only slightly less so), whereas Rock has a tendency to challenge them head-on.
I hope that someone who knows better can dismantle all my above claims and edubicate me further here.
EDIT:
I generally do not like Country (with one or two exceptions), don’t care about rock and roll, but am addicted to Rock.
Rock minus Blues equals Country.
Pedal steel guitar. Rock bands who employ the instrument (Byrds, Flying Burrito Bros…) are also considered kind of Country.
Electric vs. acoustic has nothing to do with it. Since the advent of the electric guitar, it’s been used in both genres, although I will concede that it’s often more closely associated with rock.
Without getting too deep into the specific playing techniques of each instrument, I’d say that timbre has a lot to do with it. Country music sounds much more gentle and closer to the acoustic sounds of the forerunners of today’s modern instruments, and playing styles are usually more basic and seldom rely on virtuosity. Rock is all of that turned up to 11.
Rock is also less strictly defined. Like jazz, it can have many different shapes and forms, whereas you can’t really get too experimental before it stops sounding like country.
If by “Rock & Roll” the OP specifically means rock in the 1950s, I’ll still stand by what I’ve said, although maybe not turned all the way up to 11.
Except that a lot of country songs use the standard blues chord pattern and scale.
The twang.
The hat.
I went on a vacation to Banff and Jasper and there were times when the only radio station we could receive clearly was a country station. And after listening to that country station for hours at a time, I also came to the conclusion that the only difference between modern country music and modern pop music is steel guitar.
If Lil Nas X had used steel guitar in “Old Town Road”, he would’ve had an iron-clad defense against those claiming it’s not country.
The latter genre is about cowboy stuff, sung by people with a southern drawl, and sounds kind of “twangy”.
Much of the ‘twang’ mentioned a couple times here comes from a typical ‘Country’ sound setup using a guitar with a clean, minimally distorted tone, and an amp using a certain combo of reverb and delay.
Then Country typically uses a major scale instead of the minor ‘blues’ scale that Rock usually employs. If someone strums, say, a simple 3-chord pattern in the key of G on the guitar and you play a G lead over it in the major scale, it will sound more ‘Country’. If you play a G lead in the minor scale, it will sound more ‘Rock’ or Bluesy’.
But there are many many exceptions and overlap. There’s rocked-up Country and countrified Rock. Many famous Rock bands have Country-like songs on their catalog. When it comes down to it, whether it’s Rock or Country is more attitude and subject matter than anything else.
Rock does seem to be centered on the electric guitar, and country seems to be centered on the singer. Country has few, if any, instrumentals while rock has many, and a guitar solo is pretty much a required element of rock. OTOH rock songs can be giant hits with an average singer as long as they, ya know, rock. With country most of the emphasis seems to be on the singing and the instrumemts are more accompanyment. Rock has famous drummers, bassists, keyboardists, as well as singers, but most famous country artists are only the singer, even when they can also play guitar.
Exactly. IMHO, there hasn’t been a charting country song written in thirty years. What plays now is just pop with a twang.
I think that the twang being referred to is the fake accent many country performers affect.
That may be what the posters here were referring to, but there’s a definite stereotypical Country guitar sound that’s often referred to as a ‘twang’.
In Rock, most “Patriotic” songs are actually a bit sarcastic (“Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World”, “Born in the USA”), while in Country, they’re honestly patriotic, but usually from a distinctly right-wing direction.
The vocal harmonies in country music seem distinct from harmonies used in rock (if any). I don’t know what chord they are using in country, but that vocal harmony is instantly identifiable as country.
I tend to think of country as more strummy-strummy on guitar, where rock is more aggressive, but I think those are less strict differences.
That, plus the accents.
Heck no, there are many kinds of countryish fingerpicking styles. Again, plenty of overlap with Rock here:
Chet Atkins would like to have a word with you, from beyond the grave:
Shucks, I’m not even really much of a fan of Country music, but I feel like I’m becoming the default ignorance fighter in this thread. Hopefully someone will come along with more knowledge on the subject than me
Isn’t drumming also far more important in rock ‘n’ roll?
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
First of all, I am less than useless when it comes to music theory so this may be completely wrong but …
I was told it is all about the chords and the progressions. So if you have C - Am - F - G that is every 50’s rock song. Whereas in Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave, it is said the only chords you need to know are B, D and E (I forget the exact chords but I’m sure B was one of them).
Feel free to correct me and fight my ignorance.
There are tons of overlap and exceptions, of course.
OP, are you asking about current country or classic, or what?
Anyway, bass parts tend to be different, drum beats tend to be more 2/4 time, rarely do you see a shuffle beat in country, instruments tend to be different (banjo, pedal steel, and violins are much more common in country).
The stereotypical bass line simply alternates between the root and 5 of the chord, with some fills and variations.
In the classic “Rawhide” as performed by the Blues Brothers, they played it in “A, a good country key”, and you can easily hear the alternating A, E, A, E bass line in the opening bars.