Once known as “country western”, country music is another genre of American popular music which originated in the rural regions of the Southern United States in the 1920s. The roots of country music are from genres like folk (especially Appalachian folk), western music, spirituals, and blues. Country music consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple chord forms and 3, 4 and even 5-part vocal harmonies, and accompanied by instruments like acoustic and electric guitars, steel guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, bass and drums. Today, the term “country” is used to describe many styles and sub-genres of American roots-based music.