The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #92943 Message #1782562
Posted By: GUEST,Russ
13-Jul-06 - 08:32 AM
Thread Name: Origins of Country vs. Folk?
Subject: RE: Origins of Country vs. Folk?
"Country and Western" is a category invented by record companies.
The "birth" of what was to become country music was the "Bristol Sessions" of 1927 which included such luminaries as Jimmy Rogers and The Carter Family. The Carter Family started as what we might call "folk" singers but became popular music super stars. I'm not sure Jimmy Rogers was ever a "folk" singer.
RCA had decided that there was money to be made by targeting rural southerners or former rural southerners or rural southern wannabes.
It was one of the first attempts to target a specific regional audience rather than a mass audience.
The music of today termed "Country" or "Real Country" or "True Country" is a descentdent of "Country and Western" but is the result of the same sort of marketing approach. I have read that the target audience is soccer moms.