Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with Western Swing. Although he didn't invent the genre singlehandedly, he did popularize it and changed its rules, and in the process reinvented the rules of popular music. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys were a dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers, thereby expanding and erasing boundaries between genres. Throughout the 1940s, they were one of the most popular groups in the country and among the finest musicians of their era. As the popularity of Western Swing declined, so did Wills', but his influence is immeasurable. From the first honky tonkers to Western Swing revivalists, generations of country artists owe him a significant debt, as do certain rock and jazz musicians. Wills was a maverick, and his spirit infused American popular music of the 20th century with a renegade, virtuosic flair.