10 Interesting Facts about Blues
Did you know the origin of Blues and Jazz music can be traced to the Slavery of the Deep South cotton plantation in the 1860s?
Painfully yes, the music of African American origin can be traced back to the slavery days. It wasn’t until the turn of the 20th Century that this music entered the world.
Much of African American music traces its roots to the dark past, slavery. It wasn’t uncommon for folks to express their pain through songs and music. These sounds later shaped popular music genres like Blues, Jazz, and Urban.
Interesting History of Blues
Among many African Americans, there was a desire to move away from musical forms such as spirituals identified with slavery. Yet, they also wanted musical styles of their own. This gave way to infusing different music forms to create a unique blend of sounds called “Blues.”
A unique form of music started emerging in the early 20th Century. It was usually one singer accompanied by a guitar and characterized by “bent” or “blue” notes, not on the standard scale. These notes likely had earlier origins and are found in rural African American work songs.
Black bandleader W.C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues” composition was published in 1912. After its fame, many other Tin Pan Alley songs entitled blues started appearing.
According to Britannica.com,
The blues’ origins are poorly documented. It’s believed to have developed in the southern United States after the American Civil War (1861–65). It was influenced by work songs and field hollers, minstrel show music, ragtime, church music, and the white population’s folk and popular music.
Blues music consists of two types:
Vocal blues deal with sadness, love, struggle, and the display of positive feelings or celebrating life. A few famous blue vocalists were Bessie Smith, Big Joe Williams, and Ma Rainey.
Instrumental blues explore self-expression through the improvisational style of great musicians. Famous artists include B.B. King, Big Bands of Count Basie, Buddy Rich, and Gordon Goodwin.
10 Interesting Facts about Blues
Here are ten lesser-known facts about blues.
1. The origin place of Blues is popularly referred to as the “Deep South” because many people have different opinions about the music’s origin place, such as Mississippi Delta, Texas, Georgia, and New Orleans. The first blue songs were called “Delta Blues.” These songs came from the area near the mouth of the Mississippi River.
2. The term blues refers to an English expression, “The Devil Blues” from the 17th century. It defines a hangover state after drinking a fair amount of alcohol. Today, the phrase “blue laws“ indicates alcohol sales prohibition in some states on Sunday.
3. Many people confuse jazz with blues music. Jazz and blues are technically two different styles of music. The twelve-bar blues progression identifies blues, while Jazz is much more complicated melodically, rhythmically, and harmonically. However, Jazz composers often incorporate blues into their structural design of a composition.
4. You can find many sub-genres of Blues. Chicago Blues is rather famous among sub-genres of Blues because of its popularity in films and songs. It was developed in Chicago in the 1950s, in which the basic instrumentation of Delta blues (acoustic guitar and harmonica) is augmented with electric guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums, and piano. Texas Blues, Kansas City Blues, Delta (the earliest form of blues), and West Coast (influenced by Jazz) blues are other Blues sub-genres.
5. The congregation in Church and spiritual songs often became the sources for blues. People could access some education measures in church schools and acquire status as community leaders in the church. It also provided an outlet for emotions, primarily through song.
6. The other sources of blues are the songs sung while working in the field, field hollers, ballads, and dances from music hall-type entertainments. The gathering to listen to music and dance created communities with a strong sense of identity among the workers.
7. The large-scale migration, “the Great Migration,” of black workers from the Southern plantations to northern city factories in the late 19th Century helped spread blues music. Chicago became the home of most Southern migrants. It’s often credited as the home of the urban blues.
8. Blues songs are lyrical rather than narrative. The singer is expressing feelings, sadness, or melancholy, which is musically expressed by using vocal techniques called melisma (sustaining a single syllable across several pitches), rhythmic technique (syncopation), and an instrumental technique called “choking.”
9. B.B. King, or Riley B. King, is the most popular Blues singer who released 75 hit R&B singles between 1951 and 1992. He carried the flag for Memphis blues his entire career.
10. Some of the most popular shades of the blues form include; Traditional country Blues (the rural blues of the Mississippi Delta, Piedmont, and other rural locales), Jump Blues (A danceable amalgam of swing and blues), Boogie-woogie (A piano-based blues derived from barrelhouse and ragtime), Chicago Blues (Delta blues electrified), Cool Blues (A sophisticated piano-based form that owes much to jazz), and West Coast Blues (Popularized mainly by Texas musicians who moved to California)
The popularization of blues in the 20th Century helped influence various other forms of music. Early rock singers such as Elvis Presley often used blues material. The blues strongly influenced British rock musicians in the 1960s, especially the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and John Mayall.
Although the music doesn’t talk about slavery anymore, it does represent the hardship, struggle, prevalent racism, crime, and drugs in modern society.
Rick Perdian — Travel and Music is the best music travel consultant. Get in touch with us to learn more about your favorite music.
