On the white side, let's talk about Hillbilly which was commercially produced music associated with the rural white South and Southwest. This music reflects the values and traditions of the performers. Who were rural, mostly poor Southern and Southwestern whites. Eventually, the success of country music on records and radio had a far-reaching effect, and it has an international following nowadays. Country music claims the most radio stations in the U.S. And it has the most loyal listeners. As I have mentioned before, radio was really important in the rapid growth of Hillbilly and Country. Radio made the music accessible to a larger audience. Early radio played a big role in popularizing hillbilly music, and the reason is because most radio stations were owned by whites. Meaning little or new, little or no, race music was on radio until the 1940's. The first station to feature country artists regularly, by the way, was WSB in Atlanta, Georgia which began broadcasting as early as 1922. Now here are some of the traits of hillbilly music. Most of the elements of country music come from other sources, European folk music, and even jazz and blues. The balance between traditional and outside elements has defined the fundamental tension in country music, which I sort of feel like is tradition versus change, old versus new. Hillbilly branched out also with subgenres such as honky tonk, bluegrass, folk. I can't resist introducing you to Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers From north Georgia. What a band name. I play this song though, to make a point, that it wasn't only blacks, who sang about risque or adult topics. Soldier's Joy is about drugs in 1929. Specifically, and it's about substance abuse much earlier than 1929, it's about substance abuse among soldiers during the American Civil War between 1860 and 65. [MUSIC] Well we don't have time to play very much of the lyric, but at any rate, it was about substance abuse. The Mississippi Sheiks were a seminal group from Bolton, Mississippi. They played jazz, and some blues. It was a family band, the Chapman family. One of the more influential early blues musicians got his start with the Shieks. His name was Sam Chapman. He and his brother Armenter Chapman, better known as Bo Carter. Went on to have careers beyond the Sheiks. There was a lot of fiddle in this kind of music. So here's The Jazz Fiddler from 1930. [MUSIC] >> If you want to hear how the Sheiks influenced what would later come to be called Rock n Roll. Specifically Country Rock. Check out Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band. [MUSIC] Will Batts that was another fiddler. This one born in Michigan, Mississippi. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee in the late 1920s, played with a jug band that recorded this song on August 3,1933 in New York City. [MUSIC] But during this time period it was not unusual for one blues artist to pick up all or parts of another guy's song, and create something at least a little bit new out it. Batt's Highway 61 Blues became Big Bill Broonzy's key to the highway in 1943. Broonzy by the way was one of 17 children. He moved from Arkansas to Chicago in 1920. And copyrighted more than 300 songs during his career. [MUSIC] And again illustrating the linear evolution of rock n roll Brunsy's key to the highway became Dereck and the Dominos key to the highway in 1971. [MUSIC] Here's another branch of fiddle music or another style of fiddle music. This, the branch of hillbilly music that's called Western. It's W. Lee O'Daniel and His Hillbilly Boys. From 19 [INAUDIBLE]. [MUSIC] And here's a risque western song by the Sweet Violet Boys. Called Sweet Violets recorded in 1938. [MUSIC] Well, obviously you get the idea. It was a novelty song with shall we say, risque lyrics. Jimmy Rogers was one of the pioneers of the genre. In addition to being known as the Father of Country Music, He's also called the singing brakeman because he had worked on railroads. This was a break through song in both hillbilly and country, almost all the artists we've seen so far by the way are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of their early influence. They were as integral to the birth of rock n roll as was Elvis. So here he is with Blue Yodel No 1 which is also called T for Texas in 1928. >> [INAUDIBLE]. >> Yes, that's it. >> Alright. [MUSIC] >> That song was covered by Jacksonville Florida's own Lynyrd Skynyrd, another example of the linear evolutionary process. [MUSIC] In the next video we will talk more about Western Swing. And we'll meet a guy named Bob Wills. See you then. [BLANK_AUDIO]
