Many of the artists that recorded in Nashville during the rockabilly era dominated the industry and gave Los Angeles’ recording studios a run for their money. Nashville, Tennessee was once a place of strictly traditional conservative country music, but once rockabilly came around, it became more immersed with pop music than any other city in the South. However, record companies hit it big by attracting a younger crowd and selling more records than ever before! The musical shifts that occurred in this era received a lot of criticism for betraying the traditional country music style. Jerry Lee Lewis for example received several Grammy Awards for his Country music, but also made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Wanda Jackson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash were all artists that alternated between the two genres successfully.

Presley opened up a new threshold for struggling artists who were trying to sell their catchy and yet genre-confused music. The extreme aversion that country fans had to rockabilly changed in less than a year when Elvis Presley was credited the “King of Western Bop” and “racked up his fifth Billboard country chart number one in less than a year”(Décharné 15). Huge stars like Elvis Presley and Wanda Jackson would get “booed” off stage when they first started performing at places like the Grand Ole’ Opry. When rockabilly first came out, music listeners didn’t know what to think of its new multi-genre fusion that stemmed from mainstream country.

The key shift from slow and traditional country music to a more upbeat and youth focused “rockabilly” type of music did not happen overnight. Although rockabilly did give country music the refurbishing it needed to stay alive, it also paved the way for rock and roll to grow and develop, as it was on the rise to popularity. The rockabilly subgenre encompasses a blend of mainstream country, rock and roll, pop, and jazz with an emphasis on the single guitar. However, he knew that a change had to take place in order to attract a younger crowd and keep the country music industry going.

Sholes took a huge leap of faith by signing Presley because he didn’t quite fit into the typical Nashville “mold” of music artists. At first, country fans were extremely opposed to this new sound and thought it was going to be the death of country music. The era of rockabilly started in the 1950’s when Steve Sholes signed Elvis Presley over to RCA Records. Written by Amy Burt, Hannah Parmer & Ramie Payne.

Hillbilly rock and roll