Like the blues, country music is a homegrown American art form. And like jazz, country music was big before World War II and then had to contend with the rock and roll revolution from mid-century onwards. 

And like rock and roll, country music is often a culture in and of itself: a look, a feel, and an attitude.

But the similarities only go so far. The story of country is unique within the history of popular music. Dare we say it's as unique as a Great Smoky Mountains theme park named after one of country's greatest? 

From folksy, traditional origins, country music grew to a sophisticated multi-billion dollar a year business. From the honky-tonk bars of rural Texas and the mountains of Appalachia, country sounds have come to permeate popular music and to constantly assimilate new pop influences.

In other words, the story of country music is big, bigger probably than anyone would've expected a music so strongly tied to a vanishing rural past to ever get. The story of country music is so big, in fact, that it's not hard to see quite a bit of the history of 20th-century America in the history of its biggest music.

So, country music's huge. It's been huge since the '40s, right? So what?

Well, jazz was commercially huge in the '40s, but we'd argue it's really not now. Rock pushed jazz off the charts, off the dance floor, and off the popular airwaves.

Not so with country. Whether you like it or not, country's stood the test of time. Country's the music that stared rock and roll down and didn't flinch. Country's made of different stuff.

Like what? Whiskey, for one. And history for another. Those jokes about country music being an endless lament for lost women, lost farms, and lost horses have some grain of truth to 'em. 

Country became a commercial music in 1923, a time when America seemed to be rushing headlong into the future. (Oh, hey, Roaring '20s.)

An older, agrarian world seemed to be vanishing into an uncertain future of urban industrialization, and from those early days of country on record and radio, it's been a music of considerable comfort and familiarity for millions of people who identify deeply with something that's distinctive of country music.

To find out just what that is, that thing specifically "country," and where it came from, and what it means, read on. We'll fill you in on why Hank Williams was Kurt Cobain before Kurt Cobain, where bluegrass came from, and why Eminem will never be tough enough to be country. But that's all just part of the bigger story.