Old-time music in the context of "Mandolin"

Throughout the history of the British Isles, the land that is now the United Kingdom has been a major music producer, drawing inspiration from church music and traditional folk music, using instruments from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. Each of the four countries of the United Kingdom has its own diverse and distinctive folk music forms, which flourished until the era of industrialisation when they began to be replaced by new forms of popular music, including music hall and brass bands. Many British musicians have influenced modern music on a global scale, and the UK has one of the world's largest music industries. English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folk music as well as other British styles of music heavily influenced American music such as American folk music, American march music, old-time, ragtime, blues, country, and bluegrass. The UK has birthed many popular music genres such as beat music, psychedelic music, progressive rock/pop, heavy metal, new wave, industrial music, and drum 'n' bass.

In the 20th century, influences from the music of the United States, including blues, jazz, and rock and roll, were adopted in the United Kingdom. The "British Invasion"—spearheaded by Liverpool band the Beatles, often regarded as the most influential band of all time—saw British rock bands become highly influential around the world in the 1960s and 1970s. Pop music, a term which originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description for "rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced", was developed by British artists like Black Sabbath, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, whom among other British musicians led rock and roll's transition into rock music.

Country music, also known as country and western or simply country, is a music genre known for its ballads and dance tunes, identifiable by both traditional lyrics and harmonies accompanied by banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, and many types of guitar; either acoustic, electric, steel, or resonator guitars. Once called hillbilly music, the term country music was popularized in the 1940s.

It originated in the Southern United States, and spread throughout the Piedmont area of United States, from Louisiana along the Appalachian Mountains to New York. The music is believed to be derived from British folk music, brought to the United States during early waves of immigration. Rooted in American folk music, such as old-time and Southern Appalachian music, many traditions blended to form country music. In particular, this included cowboy and vaquero Western music and African-American traditional folk songs and spirituals. Mexican, Irish, and Gospel music have had a formative influence on the genre, as have the Polynesian Hawaiian music and the Southwestern styles of New Mexico and Tejano, as well as gospel music, blues modes from blues music.

Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass has roots in African American genres like blues and jazz and North European genres, such as Irish ballads and dance tunes. Unlike country, it is traditionally played exclusively on acoustic instruments such as the fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar and upright bass. It was further developed by musicians who played with Monroe, including 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt. Bill Monroe once described bluegrass music as, "It's a part of Methodist, Holiness and Baptist traditions. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."

Bluegrass features acoustic stringed instruments and emphasizes the off-beat. The off-beat can be "driven" (played close to the previous bass note) or "swung" (played farther from the previous bass note). Notes are anticipated, in contrast to laid-back blues where notes are behind the beat; this creates the higher energy characteristic of bluegrass. In bluegrass, as in most forms of jazz, one or more instrumentalists take a turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while the others perform accompaniment; this is especially typified in tunes called breakdowns. This is in contrast to old-time music, where all instrumentalists play the melody together, or one instrument carries the lead throughout while the others provide accompaniment. Breakdowns are often characterized by rapid tempos and unusual instrumental dexterity, and sometimes by complex chord changes.

The washboard and frottoir (from Louisiana French "frotter", to rub) are used as a percussion instrument, employing the ribbed metal surface of the cleaning device as a rhythm instrument. As traditionally used in jazz, zydeco, skiffle, jug band, and old-time music, the washboard remained in its wooden frame and is played primarily by tapping, but also scraping the washboard with thimbles. Often the washboard has additional traps, such as a wood block, a cowbell, and even small cymbals.

Conversely, the frottoir (zydeco rubboard) dispenses with the frame and consists simply of the metal ribbing hung around the neck. It is played primarily with spoon handles or bottle openers in a combination of strumming, scratching, tapping and rolling.

Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles (particularly Scotland), and to a lesser extent the music of Continental Europe.

First recorded in the 1920s, Appalachian musicians were a key influence on the early development of old-time music, country music, bluegrass, and rock n' roll, and were an important part of the American folk music revival of the 1960s. Instruments typically used to perform Appalachian music include the banjo, American fiddle, fretted dulcimer, and later the guitar.

Western swing, also known as country jazz, is a subgenre of traditional country music.

The movement was an outgrowth of country music and jazz. The music is an amalgamation of rural, cowboy, polka, early Honky Tonk, old-time, Dixieland jazz, and blues blended with swing; and played by a hot string band of fiddles, mandolin, upright bass, electric and acoustic guitars, banjos, and often augmented with drums, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, pianos, accordion and most notably, the steel guitar. The electrically amplified stringed instruments, especially the steel guitar, give the music a distinctive sound.