In light of the Red River Showdown this past weekend, it is only appropriate to take the rivalry of states to a whole new level—country music. Since 1900, the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma have been meeting annually to see who has the better football team. But the rivalry has extended to far beyond the field. People from both states claim their state is the best at everything. So let’s take a look at the country music that has been produced from both states and see who can claim the title “best” country music.
Arguably one of the most famous and successful country artists to come out of Oklahoma, Carrie Underwood has definitely proven herself as worthy of being bragged about. In 2008, she was inducted into the Grand Ol Opry and into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame the next year only three years after winning season 4 of American Idol. She has won seven Grammy’s, 17 Billboard Music Awards, 11 Academy of Country Music Awards, and eight American Music Awards. Other than being heavily decorated in the awards department, Underwood has had 12 singles reach the number one spot, including her first country release “Jesus Take the Wheel.” Its safe to say Oklahoma gets a point for Carrie.
A legend in country music for decades, George Strait has produced songs and albums that will go down in history as some of the best country music ever written, especially if you are talking to a Texan. Strait was born in the small town Poteet, Texas. His first album, Strait Country, focused on the more traditional country sound instead of the pop country that was popular during the 80s. Since the beginning of his career, Strait has produced 44 number-one hits on Billboards Hot Country Songs chart, which smokes the previous record that was held by Conway Twitty at 40. Selling more than 100 million records in his career, Strait is recognized as one of the best-selling artists of all time. With the nickname “King of Country,” I think Texas has earned themselves a point for having claim on George Strait.
Another artist who identifies their roots in Oklahoma is Toby Keith. Keith’s first album, produced in 1993 went platinum; “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was released has been one of his greatest hits. Another accomplishment and what many attribute as one Keith’s most notable releases was his song “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American.)” He was named Entertainer of the year by the Academy of Country Music in the two years following the release of his patriotic response to the 9/11 disaster. Keith is also decorated with many other awards, including ACM’s Album of the Year and Top Male Vocalist. He has had 20 singles that have reached #1 in the country charts over his career thus far, and I am sure more are coming. Point Oklahoma.
In 1933, the next country artist from Texas who has had an undeniably impressive career was born in Abbott, Texas. Willie Nelson, one of the most famous names in country music in history, has been a leader in outlaw country and a reason for the country music scene in the state of Texas. After producing over 100 singles since the start of his career, 33 of those singles have taken the number one spot in overall charts, meaning Nelson’s music is appealing to people from all over the world. A multi-time Grammy award nominee and winner, three time recipient of Single Record of the Year from the ACMA’s, American Music Award’s Country Artist of the Year multiple times, and winner of AMA’s Favorite Country Single (also multiple times,) Nelson has won substantial awards an impressive amount of times. I’m throwing another point to Texas on behalf of Willie.
Both states have more notable artists as well who have made huge impacts on country music. Here are some of the big names from each of their respective states:
Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, and Blake Shelton.
Waylon Jennings, Kenny Rogers, Clint Black, Robert Earl Keen, The Randy Rogers Band, Jack Ingram, Pat Green, and Eli Young Band.
While I am trying to remain as unbiased as possible, it seems as though the list of country artists from Texas seems to exceed the list from Oklahoma. While Oklahoma has produced some undeniably successful country stars, I think the Lone Star State has the right to claim the win on this one. And how about that Texas win this weekend?
This post was put together so well! I still have a hard time figuring out the formatting for inserting photos and gifs and videos to my posts, but you did it perfectly. This article is a wonderful follow to the past weekend’s events with Texas and OU. This list was great and the gifs included made the article all the more interesting and attention-grabbing. I think this is the most animated post I’ve seen on the site so far. I would’ve liked to have the option to click on some hyperlinked text in order to further check on the stats of each artist, but you provided a lot of needed information on each. Texas deserved the win last weekend and Texas deserves the win in the country music category as well, of course.
Kaki,
I thought this was a really creative and interesting post. It’s odd to think about, but country music and football really are synonymous things. I think bringing in the win from the Red River Rivalry this weekend was a great way to capture the attention of readers, especially students in this class. I also thought it was interesting because I surprisingly have never thought of Oklahoma as a big country music state. Being from Texas, I automatically assume it is the number one country music state above all others, maybe with the exception of Tennessee because of Nashville. I think it’s important for us to remember that country truly does play a large role in a great number of areas, and that it’s styles cover a wide variety, as so many different states are home to so many different major artists in country music. I think this plays a major role in the variety of sounds that country music covers.
I loved reading this post, you compared to unrelated things and made a great connection! I really liked how you alternated between artists from OK and TX and then ended with a short list. I completely agree that Texas beats Oklahoma when it comes to country artists, which makes our recent victory over them even sweeter. I actually wasn’t aware of how many country music stars were from Oklahoma, I guess its one of those states I accidentally ignore! This was a really well written post that I enjoyed reading, especially since it was about Texas being better than other states!
I loved reading your post! It kept me so entertained and I feel like I learned a lot about country artists. After beating the University of Oklahoma, it is only right to furthermore prove why we were the better state. Your entire blog was impeccably organized and executed. I honestly didn’t want your article to end! I feel like I should’ve known that Carrie Underwood was from Oklahoma… I am confused, concerned, and a little ashamed that I was unaware of that little part of her biography. Your use of pictures, videos, and gifs were great, too! I think you did a fantastic job on this blog!
This was such a fun post to read! Of course the title reeled me in right of the bat. It was an extremely relevant topic given the recent football game. Of course I have to agree with you that Carrie Underwood is amazing and certainly racks up several points for OK, but when you put her next to George Strait there is no contest! He is an amazing artist who hasn’t slowed down since he started making music. I especially loved your diagram of the states with the list of names that came from them. It was an extremely effective way of getting your point across while making your post look visually appealing. Great job!
Kaki, your post was really relevant given this past weekend’s win! I really enjoyed how you took the rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma and applied it to country artists and their popularity. While reading your post I too was trying to remain as unbiased as possible because I definitely think Texas wins with the “best country music.” However, I do have to give credit to Oklahoma for having such amazing musicians come from there as well like you mentioned: Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, etc. I am glad you also incorporated the picture of the two states with the other people who came from them because that was really the deciding factor in this race due to the fact that many more people came from Texas. Otherwise it would have been pretty neck and neck between Texas and Oklahoma in my mind given the strong artists that came from both states!
This post caught my attention just looking at the blog post titles, being a huge sports fan, i had to take a look at the post. So first off great attention grabber! I’ve never thought of how the rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma could be tied to country, so when I saw the post, it was that much more intriguing. I’ve never really paid that much attention to where artists are from other than remembering where some of the artists auditioned for American Idol (such as Carrie Underwood in St. Louis). Reading that Carrie is from Oklahoma breaks my heart a little, since we go to UT and are taught to hate hate everything from Oklahoma. But getting back on topic, I didn’t realize there was this many famous country artists originally from Oklahoma. I always knew Texas had a huge group of artists in the industry but never heard that many were from Oklahoma.
Kaki, I love that you put the Red River Rivalry into a country music context! This is such a creative topic that I never even thought of before. Also, I had no idea Toby Keith was from Oklahoma – how unfortunate for him. But I definitely think the real winner is Texas without any doubt. I mean George Strait is better than most country artists, so he himself wins for Texas even if he was the only Texas native country artist. But I also think Texas wins because they have their own category of country music. Like you mention, Texas Country created artists like Randy Rodgers and Josh Abbott to the great Willie Nelson. Oklahoma can’t say they have their own style of country music and they never will. Everything is bigger and better in Texas, especially when talking about their music scene. So thank you for giving us another reason why Oklahoma will forever suck!
Kaki, this is a very original topic!! I think it is cool that you took one of th greatest UT traditions and gave it a country twist. I would n0t have thought of that so great going. I found it interesting that Toby Keith is not from Texas because he is the epitome of the texas country genre. I figured that Willie Nelson was from Texas because you can really hear the raw (not Nashville) tones in his voice. Nothing is ever “Oklahoma Country” and you clearly pointed that out. Thanks for sharing!
I appreciate everyone’s feedback! I enjoyed writing this post because I, too, am a huge fan of football. When I wrote it, pretty much all I was thinking about was the game that weekend, so I was trying to find a way to incorporate my love for sports with country music. All of your comments made me think even more about the comparison between the two, and I am pleased that so many of you agree with me that Texas country has a bigger presence than Oklahoma country. Thanks for reading!