When Did the Blues Begin?

The history of the blues is a long and complicated one, with its roots stretching back to the days of slavery in the American South. While the exact origins of the blues are still up for debate, there’s no doubt that this musical genre has had a profound impact on American culture. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the key moments in the history of the blues, from its humble beginnings to its current status as one of the most popular genres in the world

The Beginnings of the Blues

The blues is a genre of music that originated in the African-American community in the late 19th and early 20th century. The term “blues” refers to the feeling of sadness, depression, or hardship. Music historians have traced the origins of the blues back to West Africa, where the oral tradition of storytelling and music was passed down from generation to generation.

The Origins of the Blues

The precise origins of the blues are unknown, and many myths and theories encompass its history. What we do know is that the blues began appearing in African American oral traditions in the latter half of the 1800s. One popular theory claims that the blues were born out of the painful experiences of enslaved Africans in America. Songs like “The House of the Rising Sun” and “Staggerlee,” for example, tell stories of hard work, gambling, violence, and death—experiences that were all too common for slaves and former slaves.

The earliest blues songs were primarily work songs or spirituals sung by groups of workers during breaks or at night. They often had a simple repeating harmony and used a call-and-response pattern between a solo singer and the rest of the group. As time went on, individual performers began to sing these songs for Entertainment purposes in places like juke joints, barrelhouses, and brothels. The performer-audience relationship changed from one of equals singing together to that of a entertainer entertaining an audience.

During the early 1900s, blues music became more popular and began to evolve further. Newer styles included the 12-bar blues (a musical form consisting of 12 measures or bars), which became prevalent in classic blues songs such as “I Can’t Quit You Baby” and “Cross Road Blues.” The popularity of the blues spread beyond African American communities in the 1920s, thanks in part to recordings by artists like Mamie Smith and Bessie Smith. These so-called “race records” were made specifically for African American audiences but enjoyed crossover success with white listeners as well. The term “blues” was also used to describe a feeling of sadness or gloominess (e.g., “I’m feeling blue”), which likely added to its appeal.

Over time, the blues have continued to evolve, giving birth to subgenres like electric blues, country blues, Delta blues, West Coast blues, and Chicago Blues

The First Blues Recordings

In 1920, the first recordings that can definitively be called “blues” were made by Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds. Smith was a black vaudeville singer who had been performing with a white band. For her recording debut, she was backed by a group of New York-based musicians who were not familiar with the blues idiom. As a result, their playing is somewhat stilted and awkward. Nevertheless, Smith’s records were commercial successes, and she went on to make a number of other blues recordings.

While Mamie Smith was making her first blues recordings in New York, other black singers were recording in Chicago. These singers included Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Ida Cox. Their records were similar in style to Mamie Smith’s, but the Chicago performers had the benefit of being backed by more experienced musicians. As a result, their records are more assured and confident than Mamie Smith’s earliest sides.

The First Blues Recordings covers the period from 1920 to 1922 when the blues began to be recorded commercially. It features artists like Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Ida Cox who made some of the first records in the genre.

The Spread of the Blues

The blues began in the American south in the late nineteenth century. African Americans living in the Mississippi Delta region were the first to create the blues. The music spread north along the Mississippi River to Chicago and other cities in the Midwest. From there, it spread to the rest of the United States and to Europe.

The Blues in the United States

The first commercial recordings of what are now called “blues” were made in 1908 by white New Orleans jazz bands such as that of Jelly Roll Morton, which recorded “Jelly Roll Blues” in that year. The following year, these same bands began to record proto-blues songs (“Mississippi Moan”, ” Louisiana Glide”) for the new Ace Records label in New York City. These earliest recordings were made by musical ensembles featuring six or more instruments, and they were primarily of popular dance songs rather than of the blues genre.

In 1912, Mamie Smith was the first black woman to record a commercially released blues song, “Crazy Blues”. Other black women soon followed suit, including Bessie Smith, who is often credited with popularizing the blues with her records released by Columbia Records in the 1920s. The classic blues form was invented by W. C. Handy in his influential “Memphis Blues” (1912), which was originally a campaign song ford-re election of U. S. president William Howard Taft and later became a smash hit for singer Mamie Smith.

The Blues in Europe

The Spread of the Blues
In the early 1900s, the blues spread from its Mississippi Delta birthplace up the Mississippi River and out into the wider world.

European musicians were some of the first to embrace the blues. In 1912, W.C. Handy published “The Memphis Blues,” one of the first blues songs written down and published. The tune was an instant success, and other European composers quickly began creating their own “blues” pieces inspired by Handy’s work.

While American soldiers were stationed in Europe during World War I, they exposed Europeans to even more blues music. After the war, many black American musicians journeyed to Europe to play for appreciative audiences. The first real blues boom in Europe occurred in the 1920s, when jazz bands began playing blues-inspired music.

During this time, American record companies began sending black musicians to Europe to make recordings for European audiences. These recordings were extremely popular and helped spread the popularity of the blues even further.

In the 1930s and 1940s, two more factors contributed to the spread of the blues: radio and film. Radio broadcasts reached a wide audience and exposed people to all kinds of music, including the blues. And in films like “Porgy and Bess” (1935) and “Casablanca” (1942), actors sang popular blues songs that reached an even wider audience.

The Evolution of the Blues

The blues is a genre of music that has its roots in the African-American experience. The term “blues” was first used in the late 1800s to describe a style of music that was derived from the work songs and spirituals of enslaved Africans. The blues then evolved over the years, eventually giving birth to various subgenres, such as gospel blues, electric blues, and Chicago blues.

The Electric Blues

The electric blues began to be popular in the early 1940s, when musicians such as Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon began to plug in their guitars and amplify their sound. This was a departure from the traditional acoustic Delta blues, which had been played on unamplified guitars, banjos and harmonicas. The amplified sound of the electric blues was louder and more driving than the acoustic blues, and it soon became the dominant style of blues music.

The electric blues gave birth to many subgenres of blues music, including Chicago blues, jump blues and boogie-woogie. Electric blues is also responsible for bridging the gap between blues and rock ‘n’ roll, as many early rock ‘n’ rollers were influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.

The British Blues

The British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s, reaching its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s. Though often acknowledged as a major source of the development and evolution of the blues in Britain and Europe, it has also been criticized for appropriating and “whitewashing” black American culture. Despite this, many British blues artists enjoyed great popularity in the United States, particularly during the height of the British Invasion.

The Modern Blues

While the origins of the blues are shrouded in mystery, we do know that the blues began to take on its modern form in the early twentieth century. The first recorded blues song was “Crazy Blues” by Mamie Smith, which was released in 1920. The blues quickly became popular, with artists like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey becoming some of the most famous performers of the genre. The blues went on to influence other genres of music, including jazz and rock and roll.

The Contemporary Blues

The contemporary blues is a wide-ranging genre that originated in the African-American community in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The blues has its roots in folk music and spirituals, and developed from work songs, field hollers, and shouts. The style is characterized by blue notes, major seventh chords, 12-bar verse form, and call-and-response patterns. The blues evolved over time from being primarily a solo vocal form with accompaniment on the banjo or guitar to being performed by large bands with horns. Today, the blues is one of the most popular genres of music in the world.