The Roots of Blues Music

The roots of blues music are deep and varied. Here we explore the history and origins of the blues, from the early days of field hollers and work songs to the development of the blues sound in the Mississippi Delta.

Origins in African-American culture

The blues is a genre of music that originated in the African-American communities of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The style is characterized by blue notes, call-and-response patterns, and often a 12-bar blues chord progression.

Work songs and field hollers

Work songs and field hollers were African-American folk songs that developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were used to pass the time while working on plantations, in fields, or while traveling on foot. These songs often had a call-and-response format, with a leader singing a line and the others responding.

The work song “O Susanna” is one of the best-known examples of this type of song. It was first published in 1848 and became a popular song during the California Gold Rush. Other well-known work songs include “John Henry” and “Roll Jordan Roll.”

Field hollers were similar to work songs, but they were usually sung without accompaniment. They were often used to communicate between workers in different parts of a field or plantation. One of the most famous field hollers is “Wade in the Water,” which was used as a code by slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad.

Spirituals, gospel, and hymns

The modern form of the blues evolved from the music of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas by European colonists. slaves were forced to work long hours in often unbearable conditions, and music served as a form of both expression and escape. The earliest blues songs were largely improvised and built on the work songs, field hollers, and spirituals sung by slaves.

As slaves were converted to Christianity, many incorporated elements of gospel music into their blues singing. In the early 20th century, a new form of gospel known as quartet music became popular in African-American churches. This style featured four singers harmonizing on religious lyrics, and it would have a significant impact on the development of the blues.

Development in the early 20th century

The blues is a genre of music that originated in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The roots of the blues are in the work songs and field hollers of African-American workers on plantations in the American South. These songs were usually about work, love, and loss, and they often used a call-and-response pattern.

Influences from vaudeville and minstrelsy

While early blues was most popular among American blacks living in the South, its influence soon spread to other regions of the country and to whites as well. The music was adopted by vaudeville performers, who used it as light comic relief between acts, and by minstrelsy troupes, who updated the music with new instruments and sensibilities. Minstrelsy performers in blackface added songs such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Oh! Susanna” to their repertoires. These songs became so popular that they were often performed by non-minstrel blackface performers as well.

Rise of the blues industry in the 1920s

While there were a few blues musicians who became well-known in the 1910s, it wasn’t until the 1920s that the blues really began to develop as an industry. In 1920, Mamie Smith’s recording of “Crazy Blues” sold over a million copies, and by 1922 there were over fifty companies producing race records – records by and for African Americans. The most popular format for these records was the 78 RPM single, which could hold around three minutes of music. This length was perfect for the blues, which was typically made up of verses of around three lines each.

The popularity of the blues in the 1920s led to the development of a number of subgenres, including urban blues and country blues. Urban blues was characterized by its use of piano or guitar and its focus on more complex lyrical themes. Country blues, on the other hand, tended to be more simplistic in both instrumentation and lyrics. Regardless of subgenre, though, the blues continued to be extremely popular throughout the decade.

Key figures and styles

Blues music is a genre of music that originated in the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from the fusion of African and European musical traditions. The most important early blues musicians were Ma Rainey, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Bessie Smith.

W.C. Handy and the Memphis blues

W.C. Handy was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1873. He learned the rudiments of music from his father, a former slave and Methodist minister. Handy began playing the cornet in a local band at the age of 16. In 1896 he moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi, and then to Memphis in 1903, where he played in various minstrel and vaudeville shows. It was in Memphis that he first heard the music that would come to be known as the blues—a style of music characterized by its sad, mournful sound and personal lyrics about love and loss.

Handy was so taken with this new style of music that he began writing his own compositions in the blues idiom. One of his most famous songs, “St. Louis Blues,” was published in 1914 and quickly became a hit, spreading the popularity of the blues far beyond its regional origins. Handy’s success as a composer helped to bring the blues into the mainstream of American popular music, where it has remained ever since.

Bessie Smith and the classic blues

Bessie Smith, who is often called the Empress of the Blues, was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She was born into a poor black family in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1894. When she was nine years old, her parents died, and she and her siblings were sent to live with an aunt. As a teenager, Bessie began to sing in local clubs and at parties. Because she had a powerful voice and could Belt out a song, she soon became quite popular.

In 1923, she recorded her first record, “Downhearted Blues,” which sold 800,000 copies. This made her an instant star. Over the next few years, she recorded more than 160 songs and became one of the most popular entertainers of her time. Her records were selling so well that she was earning $2,500 a week (about $33,000 today) – a huge sum for someone who had started out so poor.

Bessie Smith’s style of singing was called classic blues. This style was characterized by its simple melodies and sad lyrics. The classic blues were usually about love gone wrong or hard times in general. But even though the lyrics might be sad, classic blues songs were often upbeat and catchy. They were also easy to sing along to – even if you didn’t know all the words!

Robert Johnson and Delta blues

Robert Johnson is one of the most famous and renowned blues musicians of all time. His style of music, known as Delta blues, was highly influential in the development of other blues genres.

Delta blues is characterized by its simple, sparse arrangements and emotionally powerful lyrics. The genre is named after the Mississippi Delta, a region in the United States that was home to many of the genre’s earliest performers.

Johnson was born in Mississippi in 1911 and began playing guitar at a young age. He was influenced by the work of other Delta blues musicians such as Son House and Charlie Patton.

In 1936, Johnson recorded his first songs for release on record. These recordings, which included hits like “Cross Road Blues” and “Sweet Home Chicago,” would go on to become some of the most iconic and influential blues recordings of all time.

Johnson died tragically in 1938 at the age of 27, but his music would live on and continue to influence generations of musicians.

Legacy

Blues music has been around for a long time and has a rich history. It is a genre of music that is steeped in the traditions of African American culture. The roots of blues music can be traced back to the deep south of the United States, where it was born out of the hardships and struggles of the African American people.

Impact on later genres like jazz and rock

The term “roots music” is now used to refer to traditional folk music, blues, bluegrass, and country music. The songs that we today would class as blues owe a great debt to the African American spirituals sung by slaves working in the cotton fields of the South. These spirituals were work songs, filled with double-entendres and coded messages about escaping slavery, that were sung while the slaves were working. The sounds of these spirituals would later find their way into the music of Lead Belly, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and other early blues musicians.

Jazz is a genre of music that was born out of the fusion of African and European musical traditions in the late 19th century. While there are many different subgenres of jazz, all forms of jazz share a common roots in the blues. Early jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington drew heavily from the blues for inspiration in their playing and composing.

Rock ‘n’ roll is a genre of popular music that emerged in the 1950s. It is generally considered a descendant of rockabilly, a type of rockabilly music that blends elements of country music with rhythm and blues. Rockabilly itself owes its origins to the combination of country and blues found in early recordings by artists such as Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams. Like jazz, rock ‘n’ roll was shaped by the merger of African American musical traditions with those of European Americans.