Country-Rock

Under country-rock refers to a fusion of country and rock music. The style originated in the late 1960s in California.

History

Prehistory

With advent of rock ' n ' roll and the Nashville Sounds in the 1950s, a nearly unbridgeable gap had developed between the rock and the country scene. The rock musicians and their audience saw the Hillbillies as Hillbilly, while the Country community knew what to do with the rock musicians. The differences were reinforced in the early 1960s with advent of electronic versions of rock music and British influences.

In North America, the mid-1960s was to the psychedelic - electronic sounds, a strong counter- movement that was based on traditional folk music. Most important protagonists of the " electric -folk " were Bob Dylan and the Byrds.

1960 - Marriage of country rock

In 1966, Bob Dylan was persuaded by his manager Bob Johnston, to produce his next album Blonde on Blonde in Nashville, the stronghold of country music. Dylan was impressed by the quality of the local musicians so that he an album of pure country music titled Nashville Skyline grossed at the same place afterwards. The Byrds of Los Angeles were among the first that has picked up new momentum. Under the musical leadership of Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman was produced in Nashville Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968, is considered the first country-rock album in music history; there were precursors such as Safe At Home International Submarine band, but remained largely unnoticed.

After the trendsetter had given the new direction experimented numerous other bands and musicians with elements of country music. The spectrum ranged from the Monkees to the later Country musician Michael Nesmith about Buffalo Springfield to the Rolling Stones about with Wild Horses or Country Honk. Some groups such as the Flying Burrito Brothers played exclusively country-rock. However, the record sales were not very high. The importance of country -rock of the late 1960s was mainly due to the fact the two camps closer to each other. Ultimately benefited both genres of the development of the country rock.

1970s - The Next Generation

After Dylan, the Byrds, and others had opened up the new terrain, groups that played a mixture of country and rock music emerged in the 1970s. The most successful were the Eagles. In the southern United States at the same time developed a stronger version, the so-called Southern Rock. The best-known representatives were Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers Band.

Starting point for the classic West Coast or California country-rock was the folk club "The Troubadour " in Los Angeles. Here is presented towards the end of the 1960s, young musicians such as Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey and Don Henley and bands such as Buffalo Springfield, Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

The most successful was in the 1970s, the West Coast country-rock mainly by the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, who at that time became synonymous with the Southern California country rock. The Eagles and Ronstadt achieved in the 1970s with their country-rock albums eleven number - one quotations in the American album charts. The most commercially successful album of the West Coast country-rock is the greatest hits album by Eagles Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, which alone in the U.S. in a number of nearly 30 million copies (29 times platinum ) and worldwide in a number of over 50 million copies sold. The Eagles sold in the U.S. alone more than 150 million albums and more than 200 million records in total. Another important album of country rock is the Heart Like A Wheel Linda Ronstadt from 1974, the so achieved her international breakthrough.