In the late forties, white record companies labelled commercial black music “race music”. Eventually, Jerry Wexler, then working at Billboard magazine as a reporter, thought of the phrase, “rhythm and blues” and it caught on. Before long, numerous other descriptions appeared – Motown, the Philadelphia Sound, Soul – but all had in common that the music expressed the rising aspirations of the ghetto.

Meanwhile, a curious imitation of black gospel appeared called white gospel. And among those who loved the sound were two remarkable men; one a record producer, Sam Phillips, who wanted to create a sound which had the discipline of white gospel but with the abandon of black rhythm and blues; the other was Elvis Presley.

featuring

Aretha Franklin

Bill Haley

Bo Diddley

Clyde McPhatter

Ike and Tina Turner

Jerry Wexler

Johnnie Ray

Pat Boone

Stevie Wonder

The Lefevres Family

The Platters

The Supremes

Wilson Pickett

Country music was, originally, home-made music. It described the births, marriages and deaths that happened in every community. It celebrated love, just as it bemoaned the ill-fortune that came to every man. It was music with which all felt they could identify. As such, it occupied a unique place in white culture. The music was not manufactured, as in Tin Pan Alley, nor sophisticated, and this episode describes the process by which this change came about.

Finally, we will be backstage at the Grand Ole Opry during one of its regular nationwide broadcasts, with a blessing to finish from Grand Ole Gospel Time.

featuring

Bill Anderson

Doug Kershaw

Ernest Tubb

Jimmie Driftwood

Jimmie Rodgers

Minnie Pearl

Roy Acuff

Roy Rogers

Tex Ritter

Webb Pierce

William Ivey and Stars of the Grand Ole Opry