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Country-Pop is
country music that
has country
instrumentation and
song structures yet
emphasizes pop
melodies and lush,
orchestrated
production, in order
to win a larger
audience. The most
familiar and popular
form of country-pop
was the Nashville
Sound, which later
metamorphisized into
Countrypolitain. The
Nashville Sound
emerged in the '50s
as a way to bring
country music to a
broad pop audience.
The movement was led
by Chet Atkins, who
was the head of RCA
Records country
division. Atkins
designed a smooth,
commercial sound
that relied on
country song
structures but
abandoned all of the
hillbilly and honky
tonk
instrumentation. He
hired session
musicians and
coordinated
pop-oriented,
jazz-tinged
productions.
Similarly, Owen
Bradley created
productions — most
notably with Patsy
Cline — that
featured
sophisticated
productions and
smooth, textured
instrumentation.
Eventually, most
records from
Nashville featured
this style of
production and the
Nashville Sound
began to incorporate
strings and vocal
choirs. In the late
'60s, the Nashville
Sound evolved into
Countrypolitain,
which emphasized
these kinds of pop
production
flourishes.
Featuring layers of
keyboards, guitars,
strings, and vocals,
countrypolitain
records were
designed to
crossover to pop
radio and they
frequently did. The
sound dominated the
country charts in
the '70s and stayed
popular until the
early '80s, when it
was replaced by
Urban Cowboy, a
country-pop genre
that was explicitly
influenced by rock. |
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