Samantha Haskin
Writing Assignment #1
Roots and Traditions There is a vast difference between the way people act and think in today’s society than in the early 1900’s. Along with the times, country music has changed drastically but it is still an easy way to illustrate the behaviors of people during both periods. Music has and always will be a gateway to emotions. Many people express their emotions, or even life stories through writing music. Almost acting as a crystal ball, it allows us to take a look into the past and get a feeling for what the artist was going through at the particular time. This has always been a big influence on America considering that music is a driving force behind every generation and will continue to adapt and change along with the country. A very good example of how country music has changed over the past century would be religion. In the early 1900’s, religion played the heaviest influence on music. People would gather at church, or evangelical congregations and sing, dance, praise, and share music with their friends and loved ones. There was also a genre of music called “spirituals,” or religious music, which generally was created by enslaved Africans. “These works set existing hymn texts and other religious poetry that was both fragmented and reassembled in various ways,” (Dr. Blase S. Scarnati, Jr.). They were able to mix and recreate many different kinds of songs and rhythms. This reflected that peoples’ lives in the early 1900’s revolved around religion and the way they perceived God. They would write about their love for God in nearly every song. Today country music can be about almost anything else. A lot of modern country music has to do with love, heartbreak, scandal, or even dirt roads. This