Country

__**Country Music**__

The long history of country music has left an imprint on the music, and the country keeps on changing daily, but it always remains and as Willie Nelson said, a place where "people tell their life stories".

Urban Cowboy movie popularized a new style of country. The Urban Cowboy movement of the early '80s led country music away from its roots. The genre's move toward pop culture was popularized by John Travolta's movie, Urban Cowboy, and spurred on by Dolly Parton's movie 9 to 5 and the popularity of its title song.   

Dolly Parton perhaps reached the top of her mainstream success in the 1980s. She not only starred the 1980 hit comedy 9 to 5, which marked her film debut, but she contributed to its soundtrack. The title song proved to another number-one hit for Parton on several charts and earned her an Academy Award nomination. Parton starred in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1982, which helped introduce a new generation to her song "I Will Always Love You." The following year she scored another major smash with her duet with Kenny Rogers, "Islands in the Stream." Around this time, Parton branched out in a new direction. She opened her own theme park called Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, in 1986. The amusement park remains a popular travel destination to this day. By the 1980s country music experiencing difficulty  and the traditional country and western sound was becoming almost dormant, the rock and pop cross-over influences were all but redefining modern country music. George Strait In 1981 a "new traditional" country artist emerged, his unique style of "western swing" and "honky-tonk" music was fresh yet traditional country music that rejected most elements of modern country music. George Strait sky rocketed to success after his debut single "Unwound" in 1981. While contributing to the new traditional movement of country music, during the 1980s, he collected 18 number one singles and seven number one albums. George Strait has been credited with being instrumental in bringing back and saving the traditional sounds and roots of country music, which later earned him the title of "King of Country".



By the mid-1980s, country music audiences were beginning to tire of country pop. Although some pop-country artists continued to record and release successful songs and albums, the genre in general was beginning to suffer. By 1985, a New York Times article declared country music "dead". However, by this time, several newcomers were working behind the scenes to reverse this perception.

The year 1986 brought forth several new artists who performed in traditional country styles, such as honky-tonk. This sparked the "new traditionalist" movement, or return to traditional country music. The most successful of these artists included Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam, Ricky Van Shelton and Holly Dunn. The new traditionalist movement had already taken hold as early as 1981, when newcomers such as Ricky Skaggs and George Strait had their first big hits, and Reba McEntire had her first big hit in 1980; Another boom period for newcomers with new traditionalist styles was 1989, when artists such as Clint Black, Garth Brooks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lorrie Morgan and Travis Tritt had their first big hits. Vocal duos were also popular because of their harmonies, most notably The Bellamy Brothers and The Judds. Country music groups and bands continued to rise in popularity during the 1980s. The most successful of the lot was Alabama, a Fort Payne-based band that blended traditional and pop country sounds with southern rock. Their concerts regularly sold out, while their single releases regularly reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. In 1989, Alabama was named the Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music. By the end of the 1980s, the group had sold more than 24 million albums in the United States.