Bluegrass is a sub-genre of country music generally credited to Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. It did not actually emerge until around 1939. The instruments used in bluegrass are traditionally acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, stand up bass and fiddle. Melody and harmony are generally close and high pitched. Drums are seldom used, and when they are, it is generally a brush on a snare. Rock music has had much less influence on bluegrass than it has on country. Along with Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs played in that first band, and they contributed new and unique techniques of playing their instruments, methods that are very nearly exclusively "bluegrass".

Bluegrass and country have separate awards and separate Halls of Fame. They have separate magazines, charts, and web sites. For the most part they have separate fan bases. To say there is no difference between bluegrass and country would be akin to saying there is no difference between Elton John and Pantera, between soft rock ballads and bombastic heavy metal.

Country music became popular in the early 1900's and was first called Old Time Music, then Hillbilly music and then Country and Western music before the name "Country" caught on. Bristol, Tennessee has been designated as the home of country music, while bluegrass is a Kentucky innovation. Doc Watson, a ground breaking bluegrass fiddle player, along with Bill Monroe's band, was one of the most influential players of the first generation of bluegrass musicians. Ricky Skaggs played at a show with Bill Monroe when he was just a boy, as a famous youtube video has captured for us all. Ricky has also played with Doc Watson, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Along with his band, Kentucky Thunder, Skaggs is one of the greatest bluegrass players alive. However, it must be noted that for many years, Ricky left bluegrass and played Country exclusively.

"Man of Constant Sorrows" by the Soggy Bottom Boys, from the movie ''Oh Brother Where Art Thou'' renewed interest in bluegrass a few years ago, and popularity has remained high.

The distinction has to do with subtleties in both song structure and instrumentation. Like the differences in many closely related differences it stems from the origins of the music. Bluegrass is coming from the Appalachian mountains, Country coming from the southern and western states.

One common difference is bluegrasses heavy use of specific musical scales such as the blues scale. Also, the heavy use of many folk instruments such as banjo, mandolin and fiddle signal a song may be bluegrass. However, all three of those interments can be found in country as well. It is a really difference in feel and styling which can be picked apart. It is easiest to understand by just listening to samples from both styles and thinking about the feel and tone of the music.

Bluegrass and country (to a lesser extent) are both descendants of Appalachian folk music, which remained largely unchanged from the 18th century until the 1920s, when mountain musicians began flocking to cities and were influenced by other popular styles.

So there basically the same for the most part..