For most people, the word "fashion" means "clothes". But people ask question, "What clothes are
fashion?" And they use the adjective "fashionable" in the same way: "she was wearing a fashionable
coat." "His shirt was really a fashionable color."
But of course there are fashions in many things, not only in clothes. There are fashions in holidays,
in restaurants, in films and books. There are even fashions in school subjects, jobs and in languages.
Fashions change as time goes. If you look at pictures of people or things from the past, you will feel
that fashions have always changed. An English house of 1750 was different from one of 1650. A
fashionable man in 1780 looked very different from his grandson in 1860. Today fashions change very
quickly. Some of this is natural. We hear about things much more quickly than in the past. Newspapers,
radios, telephones and television send information from one country to another in a few hours.
New fashions mean that people will buy new things, so you see there is money in fashion.
Are you interested in country music? I like it very much! It will take me away for a while after I am
tired. The guitars and songs will take me to mountains and fields.
Country music usually talks of everyday life and feelings. It"s the spirit of America, easy to understand,
slow and simple.
Country music developed in the Southern United States. It was the folk music of American
countryside. Many of songs tell about the lives of farmers.They talk about love, crops or death.
The life of the countryside can be hard, so the words in country music are often sad. At first, people
played the music only at family parties. But it became more popular later. In the 1920s, people played
country songs on the radio, and they made them into records.
When people in the countryside moved to towns and cities to look for work, they took their music
with them. Country music continued to change and became popular across America.
John Denver was one of America"s most famous country singers in the 1970s. His song "Take Me
home, Country Roads" is well-known and people still play it today.