Dalsing's Abstract on Neotraditional Country Music genre

Neo-traditional country music is an influential genre of music from the 1980’s that has influenced many country singers living in the south and western areas of the United States. Country music is a type of music that originated in the southern United States and spread across southwestern United States in the early 1900’s. As it developed and expanded with many different sub-genres, one subgenre, neotraditional country music, arose in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Inspired by the country singers of the early 1900’s, this genre was born by singers like Ricky Staggs and Keith Whitley in order to disregard new forms of country music and bring back older country music styles. The focus of my paper is to explore ways in which this genre of country music shapes the identities of country singers who live in the south today by preserving older country techniques such as though the use of a banjo.