Music of Tennessee

This article is a supplemental part of the Music of the United States series.

Roots music: before 1940

1940s and 50s

1960s and 70s

1980s to the present

African-American music

Native American music

Latin, Tejano, Hawaiian, Cajun, Puerto Rican and other immigrants

Tennessee's most famous contribution to American culture is surely the status of Nashville as the long-time capital of country music. By the 1950s, the city's record labels dominated the genre with slick pop-country (Nashville sound). Performers reacting against the Nashville sound formed their own scenes in Lubbock, Texas and Bakersfield, California, the latter of which (Bakersfield sound) became the most popular type of country by the late 1960s, led by Merle Haggard. Nashville's primacy in county music was regained by the early 1980s, when Dwight Yoakam and other neo-traditionalists entered the charts.

Punk rock

Punk rock was never strongly embraced in Tennessee, a highly conservative state. A few hardcore punk bands gained a following, including Committee for Public Safety (Nashville) and STD (Knoxville).

References

Blush, Steven. American Hardcore: A Tribal History. Feral House. 2001. ISBN 0-922915-717-7