Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded over eighty blues between 1925 and 1929 and was generally responsible for the surge of popularity in the country blues in this period. Ralph Peer recorded Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter Family in Bristol, Tennessee in 1927. Rodgers, known as "The Father of Country Music", reportedly sold over 20 million records in the six years of his career. Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers was the most prolific of the Georgia string bands of the 20s and 30s in terms of number of recordings. During the late twenties and thirties, Blind Willie McTell appeared before every recording scout who came to Atlanta with his guitar and a new persona. He recorded his first sides for the Victor company in 1927 in Atlanta. Charlie Patton and Son House defined early Delta blues in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Music of the 1930’s
Johnny Mercer had his first hit "Lazy Bones" in 1933. He published 701 songs, had 90 film credits, starred in 6 Broadway Musicals, received 4 Academy Awards from 15 nominations, had 37 Hit Parade songs of which 13 were #1 and he founded Capitol Records. Bluesman "Georgia Tom" Dorsey turned to religious music during the Great Depression. Dorsey became the first publisher of black gospel music with the establishment of the Dorsey House of Music. Nicknamed the "Singing Cowboy," Gene Autry wrote over 200 songs including the ever-popular "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." By the time he rode out of Hollywood, he was one of the most powerful men in show business. In terms of his musical skill, the sheer size of his repertoire, the length and variety of his career, and his influence on contemporaries and musicians who would follow, Big Bill Broonzy is among a select few of the most important figures in recorded blues history. Folklorist John Lomax discovered and recorded Leadbelly at the Angola Prison Farm in Louisiana in 1934. Mahalia Jackson made her first Gospel recordings in 1935. In 1935 T-Bone Walker began experimenting with a prototype electric guitar and was one of the first guitarists anywhere to to play the instrument in public. In 1938, Bill Monroe made his first appearance on WSM radio in Nashville and Roy Acuff joined the Grand Ole Opry. Charlie Christian's lively, inventive single-note playing helped popularize the electric guitar as a solo instrument and ushered in the era of bop. By 1939, two hundred and twenty-five thousand jukeboxes were in operation and were said to be responsible for the sale of thirteen million records a year.



Music of the 1940’s
Much of the music in the 1940’s was influenced by World War II.