Taylor Swift: Country Music Star or Cool and Popular Today?

Taylor Swift is one of those young country western music stars raising eyebrows and questions these days, the main question whether she's country or just being cool, according to music fans. But what does the history of country music say?

Country music had its roots in the folk music that came first from the European communities that immigrated to America, to some of the settlements of Appalachia where the ordinary people lived and worked. But it also had additional foundations from the South of the white "hillbilly" music where people were like old-time troubadours, talking of survival. They sang of hard times, of things that got them in trouble, of ordinary lives.

The music evolved from those folk music tunes to a developed country style that used steel guitars more than those with nylon strings. The hard life and love were the messages most country stars gave, of people wronged and of life's ups and downs. The people who sang them did so with twangs that represented the dialectical sounds of the folks from the hills, from the South, from the inner cities where the hard life took its course when rural people traveled there.

That hard life paralleled the music, as country music's heyday came in the 1930's and 1940's and the end of the war when people had troubled lives and needed an outlet to express their feelings. The instruments used were the personal ones, the kind folks could hold in their hands.

Taylor Swift has great talent, many proclaim, but does she reflect country or is she just a star who is cool and who can captivate audiences well? That's what traditional country music stars, like George Jones, are asking, in the context of the roots of country music. Swift has the good looks that make her fashionable for selling beauty products, as is presently being advanced. She is adored by the youth who follow her music faithfully.

Old country stars like Jones, who cut his teeth on country years ago and known as the Possum continues to bring crowds to concerts, wonders if Swift, and those like her such as Carrie Underwood, are really country or if there should be another category for them. He maintains strongly Underwood and Swift don't have that true country sound. He said of them, "They had to use something that was established already, and that's traditional country music. So what they need to do really, I think, is find their own title, because they're definitely not traditional country music."

There are those who maintained they were country when it wasn't cool, like Barbara Mandrell, and therefore should have something to say about that. So what do some others say? Folks like Dolly Parton are open to change, believing that Taylor Swift and the new wave of country folks are simply ushering in a new era of country music as she mentioned to CMT offstage and on Larry King Live recently.

Indeed it just may be, if we take Dolly Parton's beliefs, that Taylor Swift and others are not just cool but country, in a whole different way, relating the contemporary lives and stories of the people of today.

References

Southern States Hillbilly Music
http://www.scaruffi.com/history/country.html
A History of Country Music

The History of Country Music: A look at the history of country music and how it paved the way for the superstars of the industry today
http://www.essortment.com/all/historycountry_rfjs.htm
essortment.com

Taylor Swift Speak Now
http://taylorswift.com/
Taylor Swift Official Website

George Jones Has Strong Words for Carrie and Taylor
http://www.theboot.com/2009/11/03/george-jones-carrie-underwood-taylor-swift/2
The Boot

Offstage: Dolly Parton Says Taylor Swift is Making All the Right Moves
www.cmt.com/news/cmt-offstage/1653255/offstage-dolly-parton-says-taylor-swift-is-making-all-the-right-moves.jhtml
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