There are several factors that come together to create what we know as country music today. The most important are dialect and regionalisms, the style of singing, Dialect and Regionalisms, and most importantly, the instruments. One of the more important traits of the country sound was the dialect and regionalisms, specifically the regional southern accent. The early country singers naturally retained in their Songs not only their accent but their dialect as well with such words as “a-goin’,” “a-comin’,” “rise you up,” and “yonders.” The Style of Singing was characterized by a particular manner of singing. A direct carryover from the folk singing of the rural South is a vocal timbre best described as high, nasal, and somewhat strained. …show more content…
According to American Music: A Panorama, The origin of the blues is unclear. It seems to have started out as a form of black folk song in the South during the closing decades of the nineteenth century and might have had important antecedents in the cries, calls, and hollers. The blues can be traced back to the foundation of nearly all styles of music listened to today, such as: Jazz, rock, country, soul, R&B, funk, and even ska. They all descended from, or developed out of, or were influenced by the blues. One could almost claim that the blues has served as the backbone of many different styles and possibly even more styles can emerge from the blues. The guitar is perhaps the instrument most often associated with the blues, and, over time, performers have developed their own individual sounds and techniques, some of which passed into general currency. One of the most common and recognizable techniques in the blues is that of “bending” the pitch. Bending is a technique that guitarists use to make a note temporarily higher in pitch by pulling or pushing on the guitar string while a note is sounding. (This type of inflection is also commonly heard in the voice part.) Another technique produces the effect of a vibrating slide from one note to the next. This is accomplished by sliding the back of a knife blade on the strings of the guitar or, more often, by doing the same with the broken top of a