Honky tonk

Honky tonk was originally the name of a type of bar common throughout the southern United States. Honky tonks were also known as Tonks or Tunks. These were usually establishments selling alcohol to a working-class clientele. Honky tonks sometimes also offered dancing to piano players or small bands, and sometimes were also centers of prostitution. In some rougher tonks the prostitutes and their customers would have sex standing up clothed on the dance floor while the music played. Such establishments flourished in less reputable neighborhoods, often outside of the law. As Chris Smith and Charles McCarron noted in their 1916 hit song "Down In Honky Tonk Town", "It's underneath the ground, where all the fun is found."

Honky Tonk Music

The first music to be commonly known as Honky Tonk Music was a style of piano playing related to ragtime, but emphasizing rhythm more than melody or harmony, since the style evolved in responce to an environment where the pianos were often poorly cared for, tending to be out of tune and having some non functioning keys.

Such Honky Tonk music was an important influence on the formation of the Boogie Woogie piano style, as indicatated by Jelly Roll Morton's 1938 record "Honky Tonk Music" (recalling the music of his youth), and Meade "Lux" Lewis's big hit "Honky Tonk Train Blues" which Lewis recorded many times from 1927 into the 1950s and was covered by many other musicians from the 1930s on, including Keith Emerson and Oscar Peterson.

The instrumental "Honky Tonk" by the Bill Doggett Combo with a sinuous saxophone line and driving, slow beat, was an early rock and roll hit.

In the last third of the 20th century the term Honky Tonk started to sometimes be used to refer to what had previously been known as Hillbilly Music. More recently it has come to refer primarily to the primary sound in country music, which developed among rural populations relocated to urban environments in the southern US in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Originally, it featured the guitar, fiddle, string bass and steel guitar (an importation from Hawaiian folk music). The vocals were originally rough and nasal, like Hank Williams, but later developed a clear and sharp sound with singers like George Jones. Lyrics tended to focus on rural life, with frequently tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness and alcoholism.

During World War 2, honky tonk country was popularized by Ernest Tubb. In the 1950s, though, honky tonk entered its golden age with the massive popularity of Lefty Frizell, George Jones and Hank Williams. In the mid to late 1950s, rockabilly, which melded honky tonk country to rock and roll, and the slick country music of the Nashville sound ended honky tonk's initial period of dominance.

In the 1970s, outlaw country music was the most popular genre, and its brand of rough honky tonk gradually turned into the rock-influenced alternative country in the 1990s. During the 1980s, a revival of slicker honky tonk took over the charts. Beginning with Dwight Yoakam and George Strait in the middle of the decade, a more pop-oriented version of honky tonk became massively popular. It crossed over into the mainstream in the early 1990s with singers like Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Clint Black. Later in the 90s, the sound of honky tonk became even farther removed from its rough roots with the mainstream success of female singers like Shania Twain and Faith Hill.