Country Music (Country and Western) is an American style of popular music associated with the rural, agrarian southern United States or with the music of cowboys in the west. Country music was originally (1922-1924) called "old timey" (old-time), "old familiar tunes," "hill country tunes," "mountain" music or "songs of the hills and the plains." In 1925 country music began to be called hillbilly music as in "originating in mountainous regions of southern US." The word "country" didn't become the standard term until the mid-1940s when (lead by Ernest Tubb) it began being called "Country and Western" and eventually this was shortened to "Country." The music spans a wide variety of styles and is usually played on guitar and other stringed instruments.

Most historians believe Country Music started in 1922 (Russell gives 1921) with Eck Roberston. For me when commercial Copuntry recording and radio combined in around 1922 that was the beginning of Country Music.

Richie