Music of Tennessee
| Music of the United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| History (Timeline and Samples) | ||
| Before 1940: Synthesis of Sources | ||
| 1940s and 50s: Invention of Popular Music | ||
| 1960s and 70s: Creation of a Counterculture | ||
| 1980s to the present: Diversification of Styles | ||
| Ethnicities | ||
| African American | ||
| Native American music (Inuit music>Inuit and Hawaiian) | ||
| Latin (Tejano and Puerto Rican) | ||
| Other immigrants (Jewish, European, South and East Asian, modern African, Middle-Eastern and Cajun and Creole) | ||
| Local music | ||
| AL - AK - AR - CA - CO - CT - DC - DE - FL - GA - GU - HI - ID - IL - IN - IA - KS - KY - LA - ME - MD - MA - MI - MN - MP - MS - MO - MT - NC - ND - NE - NV - NH - NJ - NM - NY - OH - OK - OR - PA - PR - RI - SC - SD - TN - TX - UT - VT - VA - VI - WA - WV - WI - WY | ||
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).