Five Female Singers Who Weren't Country Before or After Country Music Was Cool

Five Female Singers Who Weren't Country Before or After Country Music Was Cool

Original Country Music (OCM) is a type of music that has a unique sound and style with a blend of musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. It evolved from folk music, gospel music and old-time or hillbilly music in the 1920s. The term country music began to surface in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music was considered degrading. Currently it is referred to as original country music (coined by Ray Price), thereby distinguishing it from the current pop oriented sound.

Traditional artists had a distinctive sound, a sort of brand that made them easily identifiable from their peers. Hank Williams, Ray Price, Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline all had distinguishable voices as did their peers. Country music began to drift away from its traditional roots and transition toward a soft pop sound (commonly referred to as alternative country) in the Eighties. By the early-1990s, a flurry of new artists helped transform country music beyond its original identity. Many of those singers as wells as many who have since broke into the business have indistinguishable voices. While Olvia Newton-John, Juice Newton, Marie Osmond, Linda Ronstadt and Debby Boone are accomplished singers in the pop-rock field, they clearly "Weren't Country Before or After Country Music Was Cool." Following are the top-five female pop-rock folk singers who had the greatest impact on moving country music beyond its traditional roots toward a pop oriented sound during the 1970s and 1980s.

Debby Boone is a pop singer and theater actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then-record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart and won her a Grammy Award the following year for Best New Artist. In the 1980s, her music career first focused on country music. She later recorded Christian music which garnered her four top-ten Contemporary Christian albums as well as two Grammys. Throughout her career, Boone has appeared in several musical theater productions and has co-authored many children's books with her husband, Gabriel Ferrer.

Juice Newton is a pop singer, songwriter and guitarist. When she splashed onto the country scene in the early 1980s, Newton was a pop rocker. Her voice was not suited for traditional country music, but then traditional country music was on its way out by that time. Thanks to Capitol Records and later RCA, Newton was one of several pop singers who helped move country music away from its traditional roots toward pop trends. She charted fourteen top-ten hits across the Billboard Country, AC, and Hot 100 charts, with many of the recordings achieving crossover status.

Linda Ronstadt is a folk-pop music recording artist who was an exponent of the West Coast pop rock sound. One of the top pop acts of the 1970s, Ronstadt with her powerful voice, gained popularity and attention as a crossover artist. Since then, she has branched out into pop standards, Spanish language folk songs and even lullabies. Her many vocal styles and performances in a variety of genres have resonated with the general public over the decades.

Marie Osmond is an actress, singer, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s. Her best known song is a cover of the country pop ballad "Paper Roses." In 1976, she and her singer brother Donny Osmond began hosting the TV variety show Donny & Marie.

Olvia Newton-John is an English-born, Australian-raised singer and actress. At a time when many of Nashville's old guard were already complaining that pop trends were invading their territory and stealing valuable airtime, from traditional country music singers, Newton-John poped her voice onto the country charts. Her music has been successful in multiple formats including pop, country and adult contemporary. She co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Grease, which became one of the most successful films and movie soundtracks in Hollywood history. When she won the coveted "Female Vocalist of the Year" award in 1974, the Country Music Association (CMA) was widely criticized by many sectors of the country music arena. ~ RJB: Country Music Historian, 10/2010.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• movie
• 15

[donyunger]

@stophertan Blue Bayou

[kkdiddyify]

don't knock the Rondstadt, she is a singer, not a messed up tooth girl trying

to go country, bucause her genre is over...it all started with country and soul any way except for u top 40 listeners

[stophertan]

what the song name by now?? love it!

[craigronstadt]

In addition to her country-rock, Linda has recorded a lot of authentic country music over her career- I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love With You, Lover's Return, Only Mama That'll Walk the Line, Mental Revenge, Hobo's Meditation, Ring of Fire, The Sweetest Gift, and many others. It's a shame that country radio ignored her until she became a #1 rock singer and had given up on country. My favorite of her country songs is I Never Will Marry, sung with that other pop singer Dolly Parton.

[flashbell]

@DontForgetToJog , thank you.

[jtls8]

Again thank you for the great info you took the time to write!!!!