Bill Monroe is widely credited with founding bluegrass music as a distinct genre.
Monroe developed bluegrass through his work with the Blue Grass Boys, especially after Earl Scruggs joined the group in 1945. The style combined Monroe’s rapid mandolin playing and high tenor singing with banjo, fiddle, guitar, and upright bass.
The genre took its name from Monroe’s band, the Blue Grass Boys, rather than directly from the bluegrass plant or the state of Kentucky. Monroe’s music drew on Appalachian string-band traditions, gospel, blues, and older country forms.
Earl Scruggs was crucial in defining bluegrass banjo, but he was not the genre’s founder. Monroe was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970 and received the National Medal of Arts in 1982.