The stylistic origins of country music are Appalachian folk music, gospel and Anglo-Celtic music. Early immigration to the southern Appalachian Mountains at the start of the 20th century brought this special sound into the mainstream cultural milieu of the United Sates.
The typical instruments that are used to produce the unique country sound are the guitar, fiddle, steel guitar, piano, dobro, harmonica, bass, drums, mandolin, banjo, double bass and of course vocals. Country music began to gain in popularity and acceptance into the mainstream music scene in the 1920’s, and is still making giant strides, and selling wildly, even now into the beginning of the 21st century
The present day trend in sales of music genres today has been declining since about the year 2000. However, this is not true for country music, which actually experience one of its best years for sales in 2006. In the first six months of that year sales in the U.S. climbed by 17.7% to reach 36 million albums. People’s interest in listening to country music has been steadily increasing over the past ten years, estimated to reach at least 77 million adult listeners on the radio each week.