Cowboy Music vs Western vs C/W? I am confused.

Niels Andrews · From: Salinas, California, USA

Does anybody know where there is a definitive answer for what is what. I am confused.
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Bob Blair · From: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Cowboy music - to me that is cowboy-themed music, like the Sons of the Pioneers that I listened to when I was a kid. Or Ranger Doug and the "Riders in the Sky". A great deal of Ian Tyson's work I would call "cowboy". My friend Charlie Ewing from Claresholm, Alberta is a modern-day cowboy singer/songwriter - I just played at his CD Release last weekend, and the hall was packed with plenty of real Porcupine Hills cowboys. Basically, music about cowboys and the cowboy life. To me it is its own genre, and not particularly associated with country music (the definition of which is the subject of much controversy and crankiness on this Forum!).

I leave it to others to explain what C & W is.

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

I remember when it was called [Hill-billy] then country and western,then country,Don't know what the hell to call this stuff today. maybe C-RAP.YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.
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Alvin Blaine · From: Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA

It's all about marketing.

The earliest recordings were string bands or Minstrel singers, with fiddles, banjos, and mandolins. Then 1924 Uncle Dave Macon had a hit song called "Hill Billy Blues". The next year, 1925, he became the first big star of the WSM Barn Dance(later to become known as "The Grand Ole Orpy"), and his song "Hill Billy Blues" became such a big hit that people, and record labels, started calling all string band music "Hillbilly" music.

Then in the '30s and '40s, Cowboy songs started regaining popularity. With artist like Gene Autry, Sons Of The Pioneers, Johnny Bond, Jimmy Wakely, Tex Ritter. You also had all these Western Swing bands getting big. So the radio DJ's and record label execs decided they didn't want to alienate folks by calling it "Hillbilly" and leaving all the Cowboy and Western music out. So during one of the National DJ conventions, in Nashville in the late '40s, they decide to call it "Country & Western". Kind of merging the western cowboy music, western swing music, hillbilly music, and string bands all together.

Around 1946 there was this DJ, Connie B Gay, in the Washington DC area that had a show called "Town & Country", and he was having big success bringing rural American music into urban areas just after WWII. When many folks started moving from the farms to the cities to get factory jobs. By the mid-'50s his radio show was syndicated to 1800 radio stations, and his TV show was being broadcast in 40 different markets across the US.
He pushed for the industry, DJ's and record labels, to change the name to just "Country", believing that the terms "Hillbilly" and "Western" were geographically limiting from a marketing aspect.

So from around 1958 it's been officially known as "County" music, even though it still encompasses Western, Hillbilly, Old-Time String Band, Bluegrass, Cowboy, Cajun, Tex-Mex, Western Swing, and several other sub-genres that they keep morphing into with every generation.
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Niels Andrews · From: Salinas, California, USA

Thanks Alvin, that is some history I was not aware of.
N
_________________
Die with Memories. Not Dreams.
Good Stuff like Zum S-12, Wolfe Resoport
MSA SS-12, Telonics Combo.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

This shows the transition,

From this:

To This:

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