The transformation--Kick it out with country music

As the okies moved West, the Music moved with them. However, with the contact of new cultures, the original "thin tempo” of the traditional okie sound was forced to evolve into what is known today as country music; while country music indeed has many subgenres such as rockabilly and rock and roll, the classic form of country music consists of simple ballad and dance tunes, along with harmonics that are accompanied by string instruments such as the banjo, as seen in chapter twenty-three of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.  

In an article titled Western and Cowboy Songs, produced by the Library of congress, country songs were created by "western cowboys" and travelers from Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee (Library of Congress). These "cowboys", travelers, and performers "refashioned old folk and popular songs and added serious and comic lyrics about their lives and work" (Library of Congress). This new form of music created an ecstatic night life for many poor okies and migrant workers. According to the library of congress:

 the style now known as "Western Swing" emerged. Groups such as Milton Brown and  his Musical Brownie and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys led the way, playing an often  raucous mixture of Western, pop, jazz and folk influences, and featuring electric guitars  and drum kits, setting themselves apart from the Appalachian based styles produced by  the emerging country music establishment in Nashville, Tennessee A western swing to might feature an old fiddle tune enlivened with blues and jazz phrasing, a bit of a German or Czech melody played with a Spanish lilt, set to a fast, driving Dixieland rhythm.

This is much different than the traditional, often dreary sound of the Appalachian folk music. Upon arriving in Tennessee, the evolution of the okies’ music transformed into what is now known today as the Nashville sound.