From a young age I was raised listening to country music, and one of my favorite music artists was Toby Keith. He always mentioned Honky Tonks in his songs and what a great deal of fun they were, so the term “Honky Tonk” has always been associated with a place for a good time.
The history of Honky Tonk is rather interesting to me because it turned the name of a specific place into the name of music born from that place. While searching for the first usage of the word on Google Ngram, I found that Honky Tonk originated around 1917. But upon searching for the first use of the word through Proquest I could only find an article from Bits of New York Life published on May 18, 1921. It is used in the sentence “The strains have vigor, the indelible impress of dare devil honky tonk improvisation.” The article was written about a strike against Tin Pan Alley (an old music publisher) because the singers believed they weren’t being paid enough for their work. Some of the wording is old for me so I don’t understand completely, but I believe the writer meant that the songs produced by the musicians during the strike were like that of songs from a Honk Tonk, which at the time was a rougher kind of bar with lots of drinking, dancing, music, gambling, and some prostitution.
A lot of the music played in these Honky Tonks were African American genres like the Blues or Jazz, which eventually evolved over time to become a new genre of bar music.
I really think it’s amazing how music can evolve by just being played in a certain place. There was no corporate interference, it was the people that made this music. The rough-n-tough guys that frequented the rowdy Honky Tonk bars and enjoyed a good beat made this music that has lasted to the present day. In a way I think that Honky Tonk is a bit ‘purer’ than most music genres that were artifically created by business from the start, even Folk music has forced origins.
To summarize, Honky Tonks were originally a type of bar known to be rougher than most. In these bars, musicians played their songs and other patrons were drinking and dancing the night away. Over time, the musicians began to change their songs to better fit their crowd, give it move of a beat to dance to, and sing with words and feelings everyone there would understand. T
Their efforts made the truly American genre of Honky Tonk last for just about a century. And I’m forever grateful to be able to listen to it.