According to The Bedford Book of Genres “A genre is a composition’s kind, category, or sort. Genres give us a way to categorize or describe types of compositions”. (Braziller and Kleinfeld) One genre of music is country. There are two things we need to know about genres; “First, genres change according to the ways people use them” and “Second, genres are flexible”. (Braziller and Kleinfeld). Exactly what country music is today can be hard to define as the genre changes with each new artist that comes into it, but a look at the career of George Strait shows why, depsite all the changes in what represnts country mucic, he is known as the king of country music and is the ultimate example of what comes to mind when one speaks of the genre as …show more content…
He has always been faithful to this traditional country music sound, regarded as having led country music as a whole out of the heavily pop infused sound it had and back to the roots of the genre. George’s authenic sound is due in part to the fact he is not a singer pretending to be a cowboy, he is a real life, down to earth cowboy. He was born and raised in Texas, home of the real cowboy, and a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He is not singing about a life he has only read or heard about but one he has actually lived and continues to live.
George’s career began in 1981 with the album Strait Country, which “was influential in increasing the radio play of more traditional, less pop-influenced country music.” (Biography.com Editors), and was followed by 39 albums that have been; certified gold, the most of any country artist. He also holds the country music record for platinum and multi platinum. One example of his continuing popularity in the genre is that as of 2013 he was the only artist to have a top ten hit every year for the previous 32 years and his 60 number 1 singles are the most in the history of