Cowpunk

Cowpunk (or country punk) is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and California in the early 1980s. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style.^[1][2] Many of the musicians in this scene have now become associated with alternative  country or roots rock, and rockabilly.

History

A 1984 New York Times article on the emerging aesthetic acknowledged "cowpunk" as one of several catch-all terms critics were using to categorize the country-influenced music of otherwise unrelated punk and new wave bands. The article briefly summarized the music's history, at least in the United States, saying that in the early 1980s, several punk and new wave bands had begun collecting classic country records, and soon thereafter began performing high-tempo cover versions of their favorite songs, and that new bands had also formed around the idea. By 1984, there were dozens of bands in both the U.S. and England "personalizing country music and making it palatable for the MTV Generation." Examples included UK groups—the country-tinged pop band Boothill Foot Tappers , The Mekons, and the tongue-in-cheek new wave outfit Yip Yip Coyote—and several U.S. bands: X, the Blasters, Meat Puppets, The Beat Farmers^[3], Rubber Rodeo (which "juxtaposed countrypolitan elements and more conventional rock postures" in homage to "a pop-culture west rather than a geographic or historic one"), Rank and File (playing "an updated version of 1960s country-rock"), Jason and the Scorchers (with "authentically deep country roots"), and Violent Femmes (at that time incorporating "mountain banjo, wheezing saxophones, scraping fiddle, twanging jew's harp, and ragged vocal choruses"). 

Also known as Americana when it is grouped with Alt Blues or Blues Punk and Rockabilly the genre has quite a track record of recent growth both in the UK and the US. By 2016, Americana had its own section in record shops, serious coverage in the mainstream music press, its own chart, some pretty damn big artists who certainly fall under the banner, and even its own Americana Music Association, with an annual awards ceremony in Nashville, 

The UK has always celebrated roots music and singer-songwriters, often being among the first audiences to recognize future legends from here and overseas. There's now an Americana Music Association UK (AMA-UK), which is run by great folk from all aspects of the scene - record-shop owners, promoters, managers, PR people. Last week the UK's first dedicated chart for Americana music was launched (with Elle King's Love Stuff in the top slot), and this week the AMA-UK host their first ever awards ceremony.

Other musicians affiliated with the popular genre to varying degrees include KD Lang, 16 Horsepower, Green on Red, Blood on the Saddle, The Knitters, The Blasters, Los Lobos, Tex, and the Horseheads, The Handsome Family, Lone Justice, Carla Olsen, and the Textones, Dwight Yoakam, Rosie Flores, Shannon Shaw, Old 97's, Screaming Sirens, The Gun Club, The Civil Wars, Violent Femmes, Los Straightjackets, Bobbi Brat, Buick 6, Dixie Chicks and Johnny Cash.