Introduction to "Honky Tonk Blues" and Honky Tonk Defined
Honky-tonk
A honky-tonk or honky tonk (also called a honkatonk, honkey-tonk, or tonk) is a type of bar Links to an external site. that provides country music Links to an external site. for entertainment to its patrons. Bars of this kind are common in the Southern Links to an external site. and Southwestern Links to an external site. regions of the United States Links to an external site., where country music is most popular. Many country music legends, such as Loretta Lynn Links to an external site., Merle Haggard Links to an external site., Patsy Cline Links to an external site., and Ernest Tubb Links to an external site. began their careers as amateur musicians in honky-tonks. The term "honky-tonk" has also been applied to various styles of 20th-century American music.
The origin of the term honky-tonk is unknown.[1] Links to an external site. Honky tonks were rough establishments, with country music in the Deep South Links to an external site. and Southwest Links to an external site., that served alcoholic beverages Links to an external site. to a working class Links to an external site. clientele. Honky tonks sometimes also offered dancing to piano players or small bands, and were sometimes also centers of prostitution Links to an external site.. Katrina Hazzard-Gordon writes that the honky-tonk was "the first urban manifestation of the jook Links to an external site.", and that "the name itself became synonymous with a style of music. Honky tonk originally referred to bawdy variety shows in the West Links to an external site. (Oklahoma Links to an external site. and Indian Links to an external site. Territories and Texas Links to an external site.) and to the theaters housing them. The distinction between honky tonks, saloons and dancehalls was often blurred, especially in cowtowns, mining districts, military forts and oilfields of the West.
The first music genre Links to an external site. to be commonly known as honky tonk music was a style of piano Links to an external site. playing related to ragtime Links to an external site., but emphasizing rhythm Links to an external site. more than melody Links to an external site. or harmony Links to an external site.; the style evolved in response to an environment where the pianos were often poorly cared for, tending to be out of tune and having some nonfunctioning keys. This honky tonk music was an important influence on the formation of the boogie-woogie Links to an external site. piano style. During the pre–World War II years, the music industry began to refer to honky tonk music being played from Texas and Oklahoma to the West Coast as hillbilly music Links to an external site.. In the 1950s, honky tonk entered its golden age Links to an external site., with the massive popularity of Webb Pierce Links to an external site., Hank Locklin Links to an external site., Lefty Frizzell Links to an external site., Faron Young, George Jones, and Hank Williams. In the mid- to late-1950s, rockabilly Links to an external site. (which melded honky tonk country to rhythm and blues Links to an external site.) and the slick country music of the Nashville sound Links to an external site. ended honky tonk's initial period of dominance. During the 1980s, a revival of slicker honky tonk took over the charts, beginning with Dwight Yoakam Links to an external site. (and his cover of Johnny Horton Links to an external site.'s "Honky Tonk Man"), and George Strait Links to an external site. in the middle of the decade. This more pop-oriented version of honky tonk crossed over into the mainstream in the early 1990s, with singers such as Garth Brooks Links to an external site., Alan Jackson Links to an external site. and Clint Black Links to an external site..
Honky Tonk Country: Late 1940s - Mid 1950s
Honky tonk music represented a radical break from the course of traditional country music. Whereas traditional country music, evolved in the Appalachians, was a strongly religious, family-based, rural music, honky tonk was made by Southerners living in cities, was lyrically detailing the pleasures and miseries of urban life (many of the clichés we now think about when we think about country music - songs about women leaving and drowning your sorrows in alcohol - got their start in honky tonk) and was performed in "honky tonks", bars that offered live entertainment for people to dance to and drink and get rid of their frustrations during the weekend. Furthermore, it was the first country music genre to start using electricity, namely through the amplified steel guitar. (Drums and straight-ahead electric guitar were still a while away.)
Although the elements it brought to country never really left and it has remained part of its backbone, the genre itself was swallowed up in the late 1950s and early 1960s by a Nashville-led new brand of country-pop. Fiddles and singing about getting drunk and all those rough edges were out, pop orchestration, background singers, strings and love songs were in. The new artists of this watered-down country format included people like Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline.
The classic honky tonk artists of the late 1940s and early 1950s included Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Hank Snow, Kitty Wells, Faron Young, the young George Jones, and towering above them all, Hank Williams.
Ever since the demise of honky tonk, there have been recurrent left-field movements in country music that have aimed to break Nashville's homogenizing hold on country music, and all of these (1960s' Bakersfield revolution led by Merle Haggard, the 1970s' Outlaw movement represented by Willie Nelson among others, the 1980s' New Traditionalist movement represented by people like Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam fighting against the Barbara Mandrell and Alabama-dominated Nashville middle-of-the-road country-pop, the 1990s' alternative country scene rebelling against Garth Brooks' so-called "new country") have sought in some ways to restore an authenticity that honky tonk incarnated.
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