Playing a set of cowboy music, the local boys of Busted Cowboy show the crowd a good time. "We're going to make sure you have fun," Busted Cowboy plays with immensely positive energy.
Listen and stroll through the Old West packed with chuck wagon lore, western music, cowboy stories and songs, vintage cowboys, pioneer history, and other historic tidbits as Dean Armstrong and the Arizona Dance Hands present Western Swing music at the festival.
Country music history, Cowboy music in particular includes songs dating back to the 30's and 40's. The songs of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and the Sons of the Pioneers put the Western in Country and Western Music. Much of this music was written for and brought to the American public through the cowboy films of the times and was widely popular.
The most infamous era in country music was in the early '80s. The Urban Cowboy movement led country music away from its roots. Country's move toward pop culture was popularized by John Travolta's "Urban Cowboy," and spurred on by Dolly Parton's movie 9 to 5.
In the early '80s, country attempted to cross-over to the easy-listening pop audience. The result was a lot of shallow and tacky music that was neither good country, nor good pop. In many cases, Urban Cowboy country was nothing but regurgitated '60s and '70s pop music. The outlaw heroes of the 1970s -- Willie, Waylon, Johnny, and Merle -- faded into obscurity on the country scene. Aside from Parton, the biggest hits of the time were crossover tunes, including the Oak Ridge Boys "Elvira" and others. |
