Discovering Country Music chronicles the incredible evolution of country music in America - from the fiddle to the pop charts - and provides an insightful account of the reasons and motives that have determined its various transformations and offshoots over the years. In order to understand what country music is, and why, it is essential to understand how it makes its money - the basic revenue streams, the major companies involved, and how country artists are booked and marketed. Author Don Cusic helps readers do that, and goes even further, covering not only the business and the technology that have shaped the industry, but also tackling the question of country's relationship to the other major genres of the American recording industry, including pop, blues, and rock music.Discovering Country Music is broken down into ten sections which include: key musical trends; ancillary business trends such as recording technology, radio, and the recording industry; and prominent artists, including as a small sample Stephen Foster, The Carter Family, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, The Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Kenny Chesney. This work should appeal to fans, scholars, educators, libraries and the general reader alike.

1: COUNTRY MUSIC: WHAT IS IT?2: EARLY COUNTRY MUSIC3: ON RADIO & THE IN THE MOVIES4: COUNTRY MUSIC IN THE 40s5: COUNTRY MUSIC IN THE 50s6: POLITICS AND COUNTRY MUSIC7: COUNTRY MUSIC & THE NATIONAL MEDIA8: COUNTRY MUSIC IN THE 60s AND 70s9: THE 80s AND 90s10: COUNTRY RADIO11: INTERNATIONAL12: POLITICS AND RELIGION13: THE 21ST CENTURY14: THE ROAD AHEADNotesBibliography