Country music radio

There are many different music genres in the world today. Genres that are not bounded by countries, ethnic backgrounds or geographical areas. Everywhere in the world you will find people with different tastes in music that don’t necessarily define them as a particular group. Music styles range from hip hop (a modern style of rap music) to classical, from classic rock to alternative rock, to heavy rock, etc. Then there is also electronic music, country music and many more. Today we will focus on country music; its style, instruments, artists, country music radio[1] and some personal comments on this topic. When I hear about country artists I think of people from southern United States with cowboy hats and funny accents playing honky-tonk. However, in some parts of the planet it has become the most popular music of the 20th century. Who would have thought that this type of music would be that popular? It is, in fact, the best selling genre after rock-pop, even though it does not involve fancy electric keyboards or computer generated sounds. The first thing it needs is most commonly a violin, then other instruments like banjo, guitar, electric guitar, dobro, dulcimer, steel guitar, bass guitar, zither, mandolin and autoharp. There are types of country music that also include accordion, harmonica (my favorite one), piano, washboards and drums. Such a diverse array of instruments gives way to unlimited types of musical conjunctions while encompassing a specific style between the genres. Found mostly in the Southern part of the United States, it gave birth to the most popular country artists such as Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw and Shania Twain. The two first ones are not very familiar to me. I don’t remember listening to any of their songs recently. They must be mostly played on country music radio[2]. Shania Twain, on the other hand, was played a lot (and still is) on all radio stations and music channels. The song “Still the one” is one of those songs that truly move you, no matter what genre of music it belongs to. And this, I think, circumvents any stereotypes about different genres, especially country music.