A cappella – Vocal music without instrumental accompaniment.
Bluegrass – An updated version of country’s old-time string band music. Bluegrass developed in the late 1940s under the guidance of mandolinist Bill Monroe.
Boogie-woogie – A blues piano style characterized by repetitive bass figures, usually in a shuffle rhythm.
Broadside – A topical text sung to a well-known tune. Broadsides were, in effect, an urban folk music with printed words.
Country blues – A family of African American folk blues styles that flourished in the rural South. Country blues differs from commercial blues mainly in its accompanying instrument-usually acoustic guitar-and its tendency toward less regular forms.
Country music – A music genre which emerged out of the commercialization, broadcasting, and recording of southern folk music.
Cover version – Recording of a song by an act other than the first to record it
Electric steel guitar – Invented in the early 1930s, it soon replaced the dobro as the instrument of choice for lap guitarists.
Folk music – Music made by a group of people (e.g., Cajuns, Navahos, or whites from rural Appalachia), mostly without formal musical training, primarily for their own amusement or for the amusement of others in the group. Within the group, folk music is transmitted orally. Within the popular tradition, folk music has also referred to folksongs sung by commercial musicians (e.g., the Kingston Trio) or music with elements of folk style (e.g., the folk rock of the late 1960s).
Gospel – A family of religious music styles: there is white and black gospel music. Black gospel music has had the more profound influence on popular music by far. Created around 1930 by Thomas Dorsey and others, gospel has influenced popular singing, especially rhythm and blues, since the early 1950s.
Griot – In West African culture, the tribe’s healer (witch doctor), historian (preserver of its history in his songs), and, along with the master drummer, most important musician.
Hokum – A upbeat blues style that emerged between the first and second world wars.
Honky-tonk – Country music appropriate for a noisy, working-class bar or club.
Thumb-brush style or scratch guitar– An early country guitar style in which the performer plays the melody on the lower strings and, between melody notes, brushes the chords on the upper strings. It was first popularized by Maybelle Carter.
Traditional country vocal – A singing style characterized by a flat, sometime nasal sound with little inflection. (a straight tone)
Western swing – A swing style of country music which emerged in the Southwest in the 1930s.