能否知美国乡村音乐的发展史
Country music (or country and Western) is a blend of traditional and popular musical forms traditionally found in the Southern United States and the Canadian Maritimes that evolved rapidly beginning in the 1920s.[1] Distinctive variations of the genre have also emerged elsewhere including Australian country music.
The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music came to be seen as denigrating. Country music was widely embraced in the 1970s, while country and Western has declined in use since that time, except in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it is still monly used.[1] However, in the Southwestern United States a different mix of ethnic groups created the music that became the Western music of the term country and Western. The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres.
Country music has produced two of the top selling solo artists of all time. Elvis Presley, who was known early on as “the Hillbilly Cat” and was a regular on the radio program Louisiana Hayride,[2] went on to bee a defining figure in the emergence of rock and roll. Contemporary musician Garth Brooks, with 128 million albums sold, is the top-domestic-selling solo U.S. artist in U.S. history.[3]
While album sales of most musical genres have declined since about 2005, country music experienced one of its best years in 2006, when, during the first six months, U.S. sales of country albums increased by 17.7 percent to 36 million. Moreover, country music listening nationwide has remained steady for almost a decade, reaching 77.3 million *** s every week, according to the radio-ratings agency Arbitron, Inc.[4][5
部分翻译：
乡村音乐
曲风起源 阿帕拉契山民谣、福音、英国-凯尔特音乐
文化起源 二十世纪早期的美国南部，尤其是阿帕拉契山区（田纳西州、维吉尼亚州、西维吉尼亚州及肯塔基州）。
典型乐器 吉他 - 小提琴 - 钢弦吉他 - 钢琴 - 多拨拉 - 口琴 - 贝斯 - 鼓 - 曼陀林 - 班卓琴
普遍程度 1920年代至今。
在美国、澳洲和加拿大高度流行，英国、爱尔兰及新西兰尚普遍，亚洲、非洲、拉丁美洲与英国与爱尔兰以外的欧洲较不主流。
延伸曲风 蓝草 - Dan *** and - 摇滚 - 乡村摇滚 - 南部摇滚
子类别
贝克斯菲尔德之音 - 蓝草 - Close harmony - Honky tonk - Jug band - 拉伯克之音 - 纳什维尔之音 - 新传统乡村 - 解放乡村 - 红土 - 德州乡村
融合曲风
另类乡村 - 乡村蓝调 - 乡村摇滚 - 精神摇滚（Psychobilly） - 山地乡村摇滚 - 牛仔庞克 - 乡村rap - 乡村流行 - 西部摇摆乐
其他主题
乡村音乐家 - 乡村音乐年表
乡村音乐（Country music），也称乡村与西部（Country and Western），是一种当代的流行音乐，起源于美国南部与阿帕拉契山区。
乡村音乐的根源可追溯至1920年代，融合了传统民谣音乐、凯尔特音乐、福音音乐及古时音乐[1]。
1940年代，当乡土音乐（hillbilly music）地位渐衰时，人们开始以统一的术语“乡村音乐”作为称呼，1970年代更大大普及，并在世界各地（除了美国及爱尔兰）取代了“乡村与西部”的称呼[1]。
乡村音乐出了两位十分知名的畅销歌手。
一位是艾维斯·普利斯莱，人称猫王，同时也是新音乐类型“摇滚乐”的代表人物。
另一位，当代音乐家葛司·布鲁克斯（Garth Brooks），拥有一亿两千八百万专辑销售量，则是美国史上最畅销的歌手[2]。
