As you are driving along the country road of the American South, you see fields of dry grass that stretch for miles. You turn on the radio and all you hear is country or blues music. This is the culture and music of the South. The South has two types of music, white country music and black blues. Because of the South's isolation and conservatism, the South had its own forms of rural music. First, let's look at the blues and how pain can become a form of popular music. Great blues singers include Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, BB King and Muddy Waters. Second, let's look at the origins of country music. Examples of great country singers include Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, and Randy Travis. The earliest music of the South is the blues, which is about the expression of an individual's pain as they face the world alone. Later, the blues was a type of music played in the South and was not printed until 1912. William C. Handy was a composer who brought and promoted the blues as a type of popular music and brought it to the people. Some of his early publishing work includes “Baby Seals Blues,” “Dallas Blues,” and “Memphis Blues.” The blues was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s among blacks and was starting to grow among whites. Classic city blues was dominated by female singers. They usually performed with jazz musicians with a back and forth between the music and the singer. Blues was very distinct from jazz because they both included each other in their music and blues had an influence on the beginnings of jazz. Boogie-woogie, which is like ragtime, is closely related to the blues. Blues became popular around the same time as country... mid-paper... NYCASH.COM, 2009. Web. October 9, 2011. .Kingman, Daniel. American Music: A Panorama. 2nd ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 1979. 3- 101. PrintLoretta Lynn. Loretta Lynn Biography. LORETTALYNN.COM, 2010. Web. 7 October 2011. "PBS." BB Re. HD READY, LLC and WTTW, 2010. Web. October 8, 2011. “Randy Travis.” Randy Travis Biography. 2010. Network. October 8, 2011. "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame." Ma Rainey Biography. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc, 2010. Web. October 9, 2011. Weld, Pete. "Muddy waters." Muddy Waters Biography. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, Inc, 1992. Web. 7 October 2011. .