It was Country Music that started the 45 revolution

Hi Ya'all, Did you know that it could be said that it was country music fans who first got the chance to make the 45 popular? RCA Victor, in 1949, released Eddy Arnold's "Boquet Of Roses" as the first commercial 45 available to the public. Other labels parlayed the early popularity of 'hillbilly' music into success at Mercury, MGM, Goldband and King record labels with many releases by other artists like Hank Williams, Johnny Horton, Eddie Shuler and Curley Fox & Texas Ruby. Not only did hillbilly music include Country, Blue Grass and Western. but also Rock-a-billy and Swampbilly. Eventually it was just labeled Country and Western or C & W for short. In the early formative years of the 45 markets, a few labels specialized in C & W and over time found it in their best interest to include a wider variety of artists. Most C & W labels picked up on gospel music, but some began to include other southern regional genres like Zydeko, Blues and Rhythm music. The major labels during the reign of the 78 had set up specific groupings and labels to handle their hillbilly artists as well as what was termed 'race' music, classical music and international popular music. The 45 would slowly blur the lines and begin to eliminate the need to separate artists onto separate labels. Soon, race music became Rhythm and Blues and the performers were R & B artists equal to C & W  or popular artists in terms of promotion and sales. Classical and specialty music would still be treated as separate. As this evolution progressed, the lines almost disappeared for a while before becoming more distinct in future years. The music was alive and so was the 45.