Who Started the Blues Music?

The blues is a musical genre that originated in the African-American communities of the southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The style is characterized by its use of blue notes, improvisation, and often a 12-bar chord progression.

The Origins of the Blues

The blues is a genre of music that originated in the African-American communities in the United States around the end of the 19th century. The style of music is characterized by its use of the blue note and its fusion of African and European musical traditions. The blues has had a significant impact on other genres of music, such as jazz and rock and roll.

The Mississippi Delta

The origins of the blues is a much-contested topic. However, most music historians agree that the roots of the blues can be tracing back to the American South — specifically, the Mississippi Delta.

The Mississippi Delta is a region of land that sits between the Mississippi River and the Yazoo River. In the early 1900s, this area was largely populated by African Americans who had been forced into work as sharecroppers. Living and working in such difficult conditions, it’s no wonder that the blues was born in this region.

The first recordings of the blues were made by musicologist Alan Lomax in the 1930s. He traveled to different parts of the American South, recording folk songs and oral traditions. Many of these recordings were made in the Mississippi Delta, and they capture the raw emotion and hardship of life in this region.

While the exact origins of the blues are still up for debate, there’s no doubt that this genre of music has its roots in the American South — specifically, in the Mississippi Delta.

The Piedmont

The Piedmont is the foothills region that lies between the Appalachian Mountains and the coastal plain. It stretches from Virginia to Georgia and encompasses several important cities in the development of blues music, including Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, Winston-Salem and Durham. The style of music that developed in the Piedmont is characterized by a fingerpicking guitar technique that involves a thumb picking bass line while the other fingers pick out a melody. This style became known as Piedmont Blues.

The First Wave of Blues Musicians

The first wave of blues musicians consisted of people like W.C. Handy, Jelly Roll Morton, and Ma Rainey. These artists took the music that was being played in the south and brought it to the north. They also added their own style and flavor to the music. This helped to create a new genre of music that was enjoyed by people all over the country.

W.C. Handy

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was a Memphis blues musician and composer, dubbed the “Father of the Blues”. He was one of the first American songwriters to publish music in the blues idiom. Handy was one of the most influential American songwriters of the early 20th century. He is credited with giving blues its formal structure and helping to expand it outside its regional origins to become a major element of mainstream popular music, as evidenced by his composition “St. Louis Blues”, which has been called “the jazzman’s national anthem”.

Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey was one of the earliest African American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as the “Mother of the Blues”. She began performing as a teenager and gained local fame by the early 1920s.

Rainey was discovered by Future record producer Lester Melrose, who convinced Paramount Records to sign her in 1923. She recorded approximately 112 songs for Paramount from 1923 to 1928, including “Bo-Weevil Blues” (1923), “Moonshine Blues” (1923), “See See Rider Blues” (1924), “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (1925), and “Black Bottom” (1927). The records sold well and were popular with both white and black audiences.

The Second Wave of Blues Musicians

The first wave of blues musicians came out of the southern United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These musicians were mostly African American and their music was a mix of African and European influences. The second wave of blues musicians emerged in the mid-1900s. These musicians were mostly white and their music was more influenced by the blues of the first wave musicians.

Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson is one of the most influential singers and songwriters of the blues. He was born in rural Mississippi in 1911 and began playing guitar at a young age. His style was influenced by the music he heard around him, including gospel and folk.

In the early 1930s, Johnson travelled to Memphis, Tennessee, where he recorded a series of songs that would go on to become classics of the genre. These songs included “Cross Road Blues” and “Sweet Home Chicago”.

Johnson’s career was cut short when he died in 1938 at the age of 27, but his music has lived on and inspired successive generations of blues musicians.

Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters is one of the most important figures in the history of the blues. He developed a unique style that was a major influence on subsequent generations of musicians. Waters was born in Mississippi in 1915. He began playing guitar in the early 1930s and soon developed a distinctive style that incorporated elements of both country and urban blues. Waters moved to Chicago in 1941, where he became one of the city’s most popular performers. He made his first recordings in 1943, and over the next few years he established himself as a major figure in the blues world. Waters’ greatest period came in the 1950s, when he recorded a series of classic songs that included “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “I Can’t Be Satisfied,” and ” Mannish Boy.” These and other records helped to secure his reputation as one of the greatest blues musicians of all time.

The Third Wave of Blues Musicians

The first wave of blues musicians were the ones who started the genre back in the late 1800s. The second wave came in the 1920s and 1930s, with artists like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. The third wave of blues musicians started in the 1960s and 1970s. These artists took the blues in a different direction, adding elements of rock and roll to create a new sound.

B.B. King

B.B. King was one of the most influential and important blues musicians of all time. Born in Mississippi in 1925, he started playing guitar when he was just a child and by the age of 14 he was performing on a local radio station. In the 1940s he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he began playing in clubs and working as a disc jockey. It was here that he developed his signature style of guitar playing, which combined elements of jazz, blues, and gospel music.

King’s career took off in the 1950s, when he started touring with his band throughout the United States. He quickly became one of the most popular blues musicians of his generation, and his live performances were legendary. In 1956 he recorded his first hit song, “Three O’Clock Blues”, which went to number one on the Billboard R&B chart. Over the next few decades King continued to tour and record new music, earning himself numerous Grammy Awards and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He died in 2015 at the age of 89, but his legacy as one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time lives on.

Howlin’ Wolf

Howlin’ Wolf, born Chester Arthur Burnett, was a Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. With a booming voice and looming physical presence, he is one of the best-known Chicago blues artists. His greatest hits include “Smokestack Lightning,” “Back Door Man,” “Killing Floor” and “Spoonful.”