Outlaw country

Outlaw country was a significant trend in country music during the late 1960s and the 1970s. The focus of the movement has been on self-declared "outlaws" such as Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. The reason for the movement has been attributed to a reaction to the Nashville sound, developed by record producers like Chet Atkins who softened the raw honky tonk sound that was predominant in the music of performers like Jimmie Rodgers, and his successors such as Hank Williams, George Jones and Lefty Frizzell. According to Aaron Fox (2004, p.51) "the fundamental opposition between law-and-order authoritarianism and the image of 'outlaw' authenticity...has structured country's discourse of masculinity since the days of Jimmie Rodgers."

Source

• Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate,
  Washburne, Christopher J. and Derno, Maiken (eds.), 2004, Routledge, ISBN 0415943663.
• Fox, Aaron A. "White Trash Alchemies of the Abject Sublime: Country as 'Bad' Music"