Also included was a booklet, containing liner notes written by some of the most respected historians of the genre, photographs of the artists, and information on the songs (writers, performers and peak position on Billboard magazine's country charts).
This series continued Time-Life's attempt at chronicling country music's post-1950 history.
The series was available by subscription (by calling a 1-800 number); those who purchased the series in that fashion received a new volume roughly every other month (on the format of their choice), and had the option of keeping the volumes they wanted.
Another volume – "The Mid-1990s," with 20 tracks from 1991-1998 – was released as part of the series in 2000, seven years after the last disc was issued.
The series has essentially been replaced four series: As with many of Time-Life Records' multi-volume releases, the volumes were not issued in a logical, sequential order by date or era of the subject; that is, issuing volumes covering the early 1970s before progressing to the mid-1970s.