What makes country music sound like country music?

Stuckfast

Inspired by the thread in Music...

I've listened to a lot of acts over the years who describe themselves as alt-country, Americana, country-influenced and so on. Frequently they sound nothing like country music to my ears even when they take great pains to use the 'right' instruments and sing in the right style. And I think this comes down to songwriting.

Let's take Hank Williams' hits as being the archetypal country songs. Of course he himself followed in the footsteps of other songwriters, but I think it's fair to suggest that those songs represent the crystallizing of all his influences into a fully formed musical genre. What do they have in common that makes them distinctive? I can think of a few things:

* They pretty much exclusively use the I, IV and V chords. The only other chord that gets much action is the II as a secondary dominant -- Hank only does this occasionally but later country uses it a lot. I can't think of a well-known Hank song that uses a minor chord, let alone a minor key. Chords are almost invariably in root position with the bass instrument emphasising root and fifth.

* Song structures are very simple, typically ABABAB or AABAAB, occasionally just AAAA, but there is often at least the suggestion of modulation, with one section being in the tonic key and the other in the dominant or subdominant. If the modulation is prepared at all it's done either by adding the seventh note in anticipation of the chord change (I - I7 - V), or through the use of the secondary dominant (I - II7 - V).

* While some songs have conventional choruses, it's very characteristic to use what I think is called a 'burden' -- a repeated line that occurs at the end of each A or B section, sometimes both. Examples include Mansion On The Hill, Cold Cold Heart, I Heard You Crying In Your Sleep, I Heard That Lonesome Whistle, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, A House Without Love, etc. Occasionally the repeated line is at the start of a section rather than the end, or both.

* Although 4/4 is the most common time signature, 3/4 is also widely used (though perhaps more by later country songwriters than by Hank himself). However, compound time signatures are unusual, unless you count shuffle/swung rhythms as being 6/8.

Obviously this vocabulary was later extended as country music developed, but I think all of the above are true for most classic country from the 50s to at least the 70s. But I am not a musicologist, so quite possibly I am talking out of my arse.

Anyway: am I right in thinking that country music does have a distinctive compositional basis, and that you can't make things sound 'country' simply by copying the instrumentation, vocal mannerisms, lyrical themes and so on? And if so, what other aspects of it have I missed?

viz

Agree with the 2ndary dominant - for me the ultimate country progression is

I IV I I / IV IV I I / I IV I I / II II V V / 
I IV I I / IV IV I I / I vi ii V / I IV I I. 


There is a bit of minor but it’s almost always dorian - ie minor i chord, major IV chord. Like Apache and lots of cowboy music (theme tune of the good, bad, ugly etc)

Also a lot of mixolydian with the flat 7 chord on the way to the 5 chord: I IV I I / bVII bVII V V /

So instead of a 251 you get a b7 5 1. 

Also the twisted round version of the 1564, which I really like - the 1645. It’s called the 50s progression or doo-wap progression but there’s a few country songs that use it. Also the minor i VI III VII. Well I always think they sound country, but maybe on reflection they’re more western than c&w. 

Also the bass lines are very distinctive - they emphasise the 1 and 5 over the tonic, the 4 and 1 over the subdominant, and on the turnaround on the dominant they often do a little scale - 9567 - 1. Like german oom-pa-pa, except in that 4/4 line-dancing style. 

Another thing - the way the vocals interact with the bars - you often get the sung line completed by beat 3 of the bar, and a silent 4th beat. That tends to give the music a rather mechanical and ‘pat’ form. The occasional extra beat at the end of some bars goes some way to softening that. (Didn’t know that was called a burden - thanks!)


Another feature is that at the end of the turnaround when you’re expecting the V to resolve to the I, they do a burden, extend the bar with an added IV chord, and then do a plagal cadence to the I. 

Danny1969

I would say the most important thing that's country, is the lyrics. Traditionally country music tells a story and the actual backing is deliberately subtle .... from early J Cash 3 chords to Tennessee Whisky's simple 2 chord progression. Then there's the laid back style, mix of maj 3rd along with minor 3rd,  deliberately late drops here and there. Because of this it's still the music most likely to come live off the floor still rather than being done piece by piece and gridded 

In the last 15 years or so though modern country has moved to typical pop chord sequences like m6, 4, 1, 5 ... still with a lyrical message but less weighty issues. I know people have issues with this but I still like it

stickyfiddle

Danny1969 said:

I would say the most important thing that's country, is the lyrics. Traditionally country music tells a story and the actual backing is deliberately subtle .... from early J Cash 3 chords to Tennessee Whisky's simple 2 chord progression. Then there's the laid back style, mix of maj 3rd along with minor 3rd,  deliberately late drops here and there. Because of this it's still the music most likely to come live off the floor still rather than being done piece by piece and gridded 
 

That was my instinct. Simple songs about real-life situations is the main connecting theme imo.

EDIT: combine that with traditional american instrumentation & sounds - strummed acoustic guitars, pedal steels and Telecasters mimicking pedal steels into cleanish amps, maybe a little violin around the edges etc etc

newi123

stickyfiddle said:

Danny1969 said:

I would say the most important thing that's country, is the lyrics. Traditionally country music tells a story and the actual backing is deliberately subtle .... from early J Cash 3 chords to Tennessee Whisky's simple 2 chord progression. Then there's the laid back style, mix of maj 3rd along with minor 3rd,  deliberately late drops here and there. Because of this it's still the music most likely to come live off the floor still rather than being done piece by piece and gridded 
 

That was my instinct. Simple songs about real-life situations is the main connecting theme imo.

Agree - in addition the vocal performance. I find alot of modern country rock could easily have been recorded and produced differently and sat quite happily as 80s AOR - it just needs spandex and vocals up an octave (or two!) 

Keefy

The OP’s analysis is spot on, but it’s still a very difficult question to answer. I think if a song matches our conception of country music in enough of the following areas, we will identify it as country:
- Limited harmonic range
- Topic & lyrical content
- Vocal delivery 
- Instrumentation
- Production
- Rhythm (particularly of the bass)
- Intention & target audience

phil_b

Slide guitar

Stuckfast

stickyfiddle said:

EDIT: combine that with traditional american instrumentation & sounds - strummed acoustic guitars, pedal steels and Telecasters mimicking pedal steels into cleanish amps, maybe a little violin around the edges etc etc

This is exactly what I was arguing against in my original post. Country music does have a quite distinctive palette of instruments and playing styles, but I don't think that defines country music. A lot of alt-country, singer-songwriter and Americana music uses those instruments and styles and it almost never sounds 'country' to me. I'm convinced that's because what makes something 'country' is not the instrumentation or the arrangement (though I'd agree with the lyrics to a certain extent) but the core material.

Neil Young's 'Old Man' has all the trappings of a country song. It's got pedal steel guitar, it's got banjo, all the players were Nashville session musicians. But to me it doesn't sound remotely 'country' and I think that is squarely down to the actual melody and chord progression.

phil_b

Some of it may depend on your definition of what county is. 

https://youtu.be/tb63PdPweDc

slacker

The answer is Telecaster. What's The question?

stickyfiddle

Stuckfast said:

stickyfiddle said:

EDIT: combine that with traditional american instrumentation & sounds - strummed acoustic guitars, pedal steels and Telecasters mimicking pedal steels into cleanish amps, maybe a little violin around the edges etc etc

This is exactly what I was arguing against in my original post. Country music does have a quite distinctive palette of instruments and playing styles, but I don't think that defines country music. A lot of alt-country, singer-songwriter and Americana music uses those instruments and styles and it almost never sounds 'country' to me. I'm convinced that's because what makes something 'country' is not the instrumentation or the arrangement (though I'd agree with the lyrics to a certain extent) but the core material.

Neil Young's 'Old Man' has all the trappings of a country song. It's got pedal steel guitar, it's got banjo, all the players were Nashville session musicians. But to me it doesn't sound remotely 'country' and I think that is squarely down to the actual melody and chord progression.

I agree - that's why I said "combine with" - otherwise you've got Springsteen covered, and he ain't country. 

Obviously my description carves out the shiny modern rubbish (partly intentional...) but if you want to include that then the main criteria becomes "anything with a twangy accent recorded in Nashville"

breezytele

Stuckfast said:

Inspired by the thread in Music...

I've listened to a lot of acts over the years who describe themselves as alt-country, Americana, country-influenced and so on. Frequently they sound nothing like country music to my ears even when they take great pains to use the 'right' instruments and sing in the right style. And I think this comes down to songwriting.

Let's take Hank Williams' hits as being the archetypal country songs. Of course he himself followed in the footsteps of other songwriters, but I think it's fair to suggest that those songs represent the crystallizing of all his influences into a fully formed musical genre. What do they have in common that makes them distinctive? I can think of a few things:

* They pretty much exclusively use the I, IV and V chords. The only other chord that gets much action is the II as a secondary dominant -- Hank only does this occasionally but later country uses it a lot. I can't think of a well-known Hank song that uses a minor chord, let alone a minor key. Chords are almost invariably in root position with the bass instrument emphasising root and fifth.

* Song structures are very simple, typically ABABAB or AABAAB, occasionally just AAAA, but there is often at least the suggestion of modulation, with one section being in the tonic key and the other in the dominant or subdominant. If the modulation is prepared at all it's done either by adding the seventh note in anticipation of the chord change (I - I7 - V), or through the use of the secondary dominant (I - II7 - V).

* While some songs have conventional choruses, it's very characteristic to use what I think is called a 'burden' -- a repeated line that occurs at the end of each A or B section, sometimes both. Examples include Mansion On The Hill, Cold Cold Heart, I Heard You Crying In Your Sleep, I Heard That Lonesome Whistle, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, A House Without Love, etc. Occasionally the repeated line is at the start of a section rather than the end, or both.

* Although 4/4 is the most common time signature, 3/4 is also widely used (though perhaps more by later country songwriters than by Hank himself). However, compound time signatures are unusual, unless you count shuffle/swung rhythms as being 6/8.

Obviously this vocabulary was later extended as country music developed, but I think all of the above are true for most classic country from the 50s to at least the 70s. But I am not a musicologist, so quite possibly I am talking out of my arse.

Anyway: am I right in thinking that country music does have a distinctive compositional basis, and that you can't make things sound 'country' simply by copying the instrumentation, vocal mannerisms, lyrical themes and so on? And if so, what other aspects of it have I missed?

OP, Sounds like BBC 4 has just the prog for you , this coming Friday...

Emmylou Harris's Ten Commandments of Country 

Keefy

phil_b said:

Slide guitar

slacker said:

The answer is Telecaster. What's The question?

Actually no, and no.

There's probably more pedal steel than slide guitar across the broad genre of country.

And the twangy Tele thing only really took off with the rise of the Bakersfield sound (Buck Owens etc).

CountryDave

Back in the day, if it didn’t have steel guitar, banjo and fiddle, it wasn’t considered country.

If you ever get chance, visit the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Loads of history and legendary instruments from the likes of Hank Williams and Bill Monroe. As a place to visit it kicked Graceland into a cocked hat IMO.

Keefy

CountryDave said:

Back in the day, if it didn’t have steel guitar, banjo and fiddle, it wasn’t considered country.

...

Ah, but which day?

digitalkettle

slacker said:

The answer is Telecaster...

Nope...is it Rhinestones?

Dominic

Well ,modern Country has become a cross between Southern Rock and Pop where Trad Country was basically a direct hotted -up version of Appalachian Bluegrass.
I like both so I won't dissect and discriminate but I don't call Taylor Swift any form of Country.
Of course the obvious Major 1,4,5 and substitutions and the story lyric are critical as are the slightly humorous song Titles such as All my Exes Live in Texas , or Alan Jackson's It's 5 0'clock Somewhere to Garth Brookes' I ain't going down til the Sun comes up '.......I love this stuff and the Folky/Country of Jimmy Buffet .
I have heard some very non-country songs done in a Country style and concluded that it is the sound ,instrumentation and phrasing.
As soon as you get a Tele twang , few double stops, B string compound bends ,the pedal steel sound and a fiddle or Mandolin going in the background you have the Country flavour.
Redd Volkaert plays a lot of popular 1940s / 50s songbook standards in his regular set and yet it sounds so country .

PhilW1

A cowboy hat.

Danny1969

CountryDave said:

Back in the day, if it didn’t have steel guitar, banjo and fiddle, it wasn’t considered country.

If you ever get chance, visit the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Loads of history and legendary instruments from the likes of Hank Williams and Bill Monroe. As a place to visit it kicked Graceland into a cocked hat IMO.

Yeah I spent a week in Nashville, completely loved the place. Then I went to Memphis and stayed on The Beale, didn't bother with Gracelands 

Neill

I honestly think it's all in the delivery.

Country music singers tend to have a certain common style, and country bands feature instruments that you rarely see in rock/blues bands - pedal steel, mandolin, violin, (takes deep breath), banjo.  If you remove these elements the genre becomes much harder to identify.

It's a crude example but contrast Hank Williams original recording of "Move it on Over" with George Thorogood's version.  

Stuckfast

Early honky-tonk country like Hank and Lefty Frizzell has pretty stripped-down instrumentation, typically acoustic guitar, lap/console steel, piano and maybe violin. You don't hear mandolin and banjo much except in country-blues or bluegrass.

As you move through the 50s and into the 60s you hear pedal steel guitar, a lot more electric guitar, drums -- initially just a snare drum and later a full kit -- and bass. A lot of 60s and 70s country borrows or shares playing styles with rock music, so for instance Nashville guitarists start using heavy effects for a bit in the late 60s.

You've also got the 'countrypolitan' style that deliberately commercialised country by sidelining the steel guitars and so on and bringing in orchestras and choirs instead.

So the palette of country instruments has changed a lot over the years, but it still sounds like country music. That's why I think the essence of 'country' has more to do with the songwriting than the instrumentation.