Country vs. Rock

Country Music vs. Rock Music:

The similarities and the differences

As Samuel Butler once said, "Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule." For many years people really did not think or feel this way. For a long time each culture had its own musical style and never tried to combine their sounds with any other cultures sound. As time went on people became brave and started experimenting with many things. Only within the last 100 years have cultures started heavily integrating within each other, which has resulted in a mixing of their musical styles. With the mixing of all these different musical styles, it has created many music genres. Along with each genre there is a certain stereotype that follows it. For example, Country music stereotypes cowboys while Rock music stereotypes rebellious teens. These stereotypes are sometimes true and other times they are completely wrong. Rock and Country music might differ in sound now but, they have more in common than you might think.

One of the biggest differences that these two genres have is, their sound and their fan base. When I say sound, I do not mean the lyrics in the songs, in fact their lyrics are quite similar, I am talking about the instrumental music. Country music favors a more simple 3 chord progression. A 3 chord progression is just what the name says, it is 3 different chords played in a sequence to make a rhythm. Country music also typically uses an acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums and a singer to make up the band. Other instruments that can be heard in a country band are the fiddle, banjo and the harmonica. Rock on the other hand typically favors a more complex 12 chord progression. The 12 chord progression involves 12 different chords that can be played in a sequence before it starts over again. With rock music having a more complex sound, the lyrics are usually not the focus of the song, the instrumentals are. Country music is slower and quieter typically...