Music Sound

The Nashville sound in country music arose during the 1950s in the United States. Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, who were producing records in Nashville, invented the form by stripping the honky tonk roughness from traditional country and adding jazzy production and pop song structures. Vocalist Patsy Cline and pianist Floyd Cramer were two of the most famous of the Nashville sound's original era.

In the early 1960s, the Nashville sound began to be challenged by the rival Bakersfield sound. Nashville's pop song structure became more pronounced, and it morphed into countrypolitan. Countrypolitan was aimed straight at mainstream markets, and it sold well throughout the later 1960s and 1970s. Among the architects of this sound were producers Billy Sherrill (who was instrumental in shaping Tammy Wynette's early career), and Glenn Sutton. Artists who typified the Countrypolitan sound initially included Wynette, Glen Campbell, Lynn Anderson, and Charlie Pride, during the 1960s and early '70s, and later Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, and Crystal Gayle. The Bakersfield sound and, later, outlaw country dominated country music among aficionados while countrypolitan reigned on the pop charts.

Upon being asked what the Nashville Sound was, Chet Atkins would reach his hand into his pocket, shake the loose change around, and say "That's what it is. It's the sound of money".