Meanings
proper noun
- A subgenre of country music developed in the West Coast and popularized during the 1950s and 1960s, featuring Fender Telecaster guitars, a drum backbeat, fiddles and steel guitars, along with stylistic touches from rock and roll music.
A subgenre of country music, the Bakersfield Sound emerged out of what Merle Haggard called “the redneck honky-tonks” and what Glen Campbell termed “the fightin' and dancin' clubs” in Bakersfield, California.
2023, Thomas M. Kitts, Keep on Believin', Penn State Press, →ISBN, page 105
Origin
Developed in and around Bakersfield, California, during the 1950s.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
Bakersfield sound. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bakersfield%20sound
MLA
“Bakersfield sound.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bakersfield%20sound. Accessed November 5, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Bakersfield sound,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bakersfield%20sound.
Source: Bakersfield sound on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.