A history of country music, told through the radio

Each chapter ends with the stations playing that era's music right now, so you can read about Hank Williams and then hear him.

1. 

   Chapter 1 · 1922–1933 Before the dial: the first country records A Texas fiddler in a New York studio, a hit nobody at the label liked, and ten days in Bristol that set the pattern for everything after.

2. 

   Chapter 2 · 1923–1943 The barn dances: WLS, WSM and the Grand Ole Opry How an insurance company's radio station, a showman from Memphis and a Saturday-night fiddle show became the most famous stage in American music.

3. 

   Chapter 3 · 1930–1946 Singing cowboys, western swing and the border blasters In the 1930s country music went west — to Hollywood, to the Texas dance halls, and to half-million-watt transmitters just across the Mexican border.

4. 

   Chapter 4 · 1933–1955 Honky-tonk: jukeboxes, heartbreak and Hank When Prohibition ended, country music moved into the bar. It got louder, sadder and more honest — and produced the most influential songwriter it has ever had.

5. 

   Chapter 5 · 1939–today Bill Monroe and the invention of bluegrass Most music styles grow up slowly. Bluegrass has a founder, a birthplace on the Opry stage, and a band line-up everyone still copies — then it outlived the radio format that ignored it.

6. 

   Chapter 6 · 1954–1972 The Nashville Sound, and Bakersfield's answer Rock and roll nearly killed country music. Nashville fought back with strings and smooth vocals; California fought back with Telecasters. Meanwhile, radio invented the all-country station.

7. 

   Chapter 7 · 1970–1980 The outlaws Willie went home to Texas, Waylon took his own band into the studio, and a compilation album of old tracks became the first country record to sell a million.

8. 

   Chapter 8 · 1980–1999 From Urban Cowboy to the '90s boom A John Travolta film put a mechanical bull in every city, the neotraditionalists took country back, and a new way of counting records revealed the biggest audience the music had ever had.

9. 

   Chapter 9 · 1968–2015 Alt-country, Americana and the road around radio While country radio narrowed, a parallel country music grew up beside it — on punk stages, on college and public radio, and in the Texas and Oklahoma bars that never needed Nashville.

10. 

    Chapter 10 · 2010–now Bro-country, streaming and the fight over the charts Trucks and tailgates, a chart row over a viral hit, a debate about who gets played — and then country became one of the fastest-growing kinds of music in the world.