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Country Music: A Brief History
Origins
In the 1700s, settlers from Britain, Ireland, and Scotland brought their folk songs and instruments to America. Soon they were composing their own tunes, telling their own stories, and singing and playing their instruments in their own new ways.
This gave rise to a new, uniquely American musical genre, originally called hillbilly or mountain music, then country and western, then just country music.
Breakout
As a national mainstream genre, American country music broke out in the 1920s when radio spread throughout America. In 1925, George D. Hay started the Grand Ole Opry, a radio showcase for country music. By the late 1920s, country music had its first national star act, the Carter Family.
The talent scout and record producer Ralph Peer recorded some of the first great country music acts. Peer discovered both Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.