🎻 Ethnic and folk music — country

Country music emerged as a commercial genre in the 1920s, mainly in the southern United States, drawing on Appalachian and Anglo-American traditions as well as African American contributions from blues, gospel and old-time string bands. The banjo is thus derived from African instruments, while the fiddle, the guitar and, later, the steel guitar became characteristic of the genre. Country includes numerous branches, such as bluegrass, honky-tonk, western swing, the Nashville sound, outlaw country and Americana. Its songs address everyday life, love, family, work and social change, going well beyond the rural world alone.