The Blues, A Genre Of Music

Even with the definite roots in Black culture, most of the main performers however were white. Take Elvis Presley for example, the songs he sang were the normal blues rock style, but he was white. He was still part of the culture, he was thought as black. It was a common saying among the musicians at the time was that “If you were white and played blues you were black once.” These Black roots and White musicians led to this music being called a black and white hybrid. This fact was what turned away most adults from this

In James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues he deals with a man trying to find his identity in a very hostile society. The blues in this story is used in a more emotional manner which recollects the past. It also repairs the relationship between the two brothers who have chosen two different ways of coping in their ghetto environment. The blues also serves as a communication devise between the two brothers. Baldwin uses the blues to state a fact; the ugliness and meanness inherent in the human condition. In order to really understand the message of the blues you have to be one that has suffered just like Sonny and the elder brother. The blues that they play also communicates to other sufferers who have had their own trials, so they know what this music is all about. Sonny's suffering are within himself, but deep suffering is common to all his listeners. Even his brother can attune himself to this suffering, which is brought on by the death of his little daughter Grace. When the brother is at the club listening to the blues he recalls his mother, the moonlit road on

Looking back at the history of Blues music, one can see the influence of the African-American community, tradition, and culture very apparent in it. The Blues music genre came into being from the songs

“When first entering in America, British folk music was distinguished by three-chord tunes, sparse instrumentation (with some fiddlers), mostly male performers, improvisation, the singers’ sporadic shouts (Scottish “yips”), Christian themes served up in hundreds of hymns, and a secular collection of songs that told stories, generally about love and lost love, using metaphor and symbol to tell those stories” (Allen 101). By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, British music changed and became Americanized. Vocal harmonizing slowly evolved, and fiddlers were accompanied by those who played banjo, an African American opening. “Tambourines and “bones” (tapping out rhythms using pork rib bones) were a minstrel show contribution” (Allen 102). When African Americans were forced into slavery and brought to North America in the 1600s, they brought their own musical traditions and sounds. Slaves who were on the Mississippi River Valley delta soil developed what will later be introduced as blues music. On the plantations, slaves greatly changed British American hymn singing. They took non-religious British American songs and turned it into their own forms of music that followed their culture and taste of music. Blues emerged in the early twentieth century at the same time country music became settled from its folk roots. Blues music talked about the indifferences African American slaves were going through at that time. “The blues voiced human

This type of repetition is very common in blues composition and often resembles a form of story telling as blues music often provides an additional narrative within the song usually dealing with the hardships of life. Similar to the drums, the remainder of the instruments come together to create tension, which is then followed by release. The guitar often works in unison with the vocals, acting as a lead in the composition. Lastly, blues songs are usually set up in a 12-bar-structure, which is divided into three segments of four bars. These 12 bars are generally made up of three chords, whose main notes are based on the first, fourth, and fifth notes of an eight-note-scale. Additionally, one may find certain notes that are slightly flatted, which are known as “blue notes”. Blues songs are typically played in a 4/4 time signature, meaning that four beats are found in each measure.

Troubled and alone the man described attempts to escape his past. He plays with a slow methodical rhythm. The rhythm is not happy, but more relative to the man’s experiences. Although not specified, we can infer his past was not favorable. Langston writes, “I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’ And put ma troubles on the shelf (Hughes).” The anguish of his past is overbearing and without an outlet he would likely be dead. The melancholy attitude carries through to his life and without his Blues music his overbearing emotions shine. “He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead. (Hughes).” What was optimistic lines prior turns dark in despair as he sleeps. One can infer the cycle continues day in and day out. He finds hope in the music, just like Sonny; however, once the curtains close the true emotions emerge. His expression is almost that of desperation as opposed to inspiration. His plays his past and current emotions in his music, which gives its richer and deeper vide. Instead of putting up a masquerade he plays it how it

The blues have deep roots embedded within American history—particularly that of African American history. The history of the blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th century and was created by slaves, ex-slaves, and descendants of slaves. They were created by individuals who endured great hardship while performing endless hours of arduous labor and blues served as a form of escapism. To these individuals, songs provided them with the strength to persevere through their struggles. Blues songs depicted individuals who persevered in the face of adversity. They were symbols of hope to those squandering in the depths of oppression. In relations to the blues, every song has a story behind it and within every story, there is something to be said. Blues artists, through their struggles, detail how they overcame hardship and laughed at the face of oppression. They defied the rules and in doing so, showed African Americans that they too are beacons of hope for the hopeless. The best blues is instinctive, cathartic, and intensely emotional. From irrepressible bliss to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion than that of the blues. Like many bluesmen of his day, Robert Johnson applied his craft as a lonely traveling musician on street corners and in juke joints. He was a lonely man whose songs romanticized that existence. With Johnson’s unique vocal style, haunting lyrics, and creative guitar techniques, Johnson’s innovation embodied the essence of

A single source of blues music cannot be traced, but Ma Rainey is rightfully credited with introducing it to the world. Hence the reason she was dubbed as “The Mother of the Blues”. During an interview in the 1930s, Ma told musicologist John Work, that she heard what would be called blues, for the first time around 1902. She was in a small town in Missouri working a show at the time, and one morning a local girl came into the tent singing about a man whom had left her. This new style of soulful music drew in Ma Rainey so much she later had the girl teach her the song. Rainey performed the song as an encore in a show soon after, earning a special place in the show, and marking the start of her career (Jas Obrecht Archive).

On the other hand, Blues were basically from work songs of African Americans slaves at the time. “It is a native American music, the product of the black man in this country, or, to put it more exactly the way I have come to think about it, blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives”(pp.17), said Jones and Baraka. In Jazz – A History, Frank Tirro wisely analyzes and explains the relationship between the unique background and

The blues is a musical style of feeling, a style about playing what comes from your heart. It came from work songs, field chants, spirituals, field hollers and revivalist hymns from the African American communities. Blues is associated with the sad times

The lyrics of early traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times, in a AAB pattern. Some of the instruments used in Blues are the saxophone, harmonica, guitar, piano, trombone and trumpets. It's not hard to believe that the lyrics often relate troubles experienced within African American society. Some of the most common lyrics found in blues range from love, romance, heartbreaks, affection, depression, riches, fame and fortune. More common themes presented in blues are hardships and struggles of the time period, region or personal situations. Commonly heard are themes dealing with spiritual beliefs, discrimination, injustice, relationships, violence and family. An example of a singer dealing with family

There are several stylistic characteristics of the blues. The first one is the blue notes, which is the "bent" technique for lowering the pitch of third and seventh scale degrees in the major scale(259). The next one is the blue chorus, which is three-line lyrics, and it contains fill which is the instrument response of the call and response between vocal and instrument. The third feature is the blue progression which is the form of the combination between tonic(I), subdominant(IV), and dominant(V) chords. It is usually arranged as: I- / IV- I- / V- I-. Another characteristic is that the timbre of the vocals in blues have a wide varieties. Every single piece of blue music features a different kind of vocal texture. The rhythm in the blues has a characteristic called "swung" which means the long-short pattern of the rhythm. In all three pieces of music, the blue note and the blue chorus are applied to the composition. The "bent" texture of the pitch and the neat separation of the lyrics can be easily notice in the music. The call and response in vocals and instruments, on the other hand, is not so obvious in "Can 't Help Lovin ' Dat Man," but I think, though subtle, it is still there at the end of each line. The rhythm in the "Muleskinner Blues" is more steady instead of the long- short patterned "swung." The "swung" is not so obvious in "Can 't Help Lovin ' Dat Man," either. Overall, there are some standard blue style in all three pieces of music, but we

In contrast, Blues music originated from southern Mississippi and was first recorded in the 1920s. Blues music is further differentiated from Jazz as it was originally played as a solo using a slide guitar. This is not the case today as it has been modified and adapted by practising artists and utilises complex bands.

No black person can escape the blues, because the blues are an inherent part of the black existence in America. To be black is to be blue. The blues tell us about black people’s attempt to carve out a significant existence in a very trying situation. The purpose of the blues is to give structure to black existence in a context where color means rejection and humiliation. Suffering and its relation to blackness is inseparable from the meaning of the blues. Without pain and suffering, and what that meant for black people in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas, there would have been no blues. The blue mood means sorrow, frustration, despair, and black people’s attempt to take these existential realities upon themselves and not lose their sanity. The blues are not art for art’s sake, music for music’s sake. They are a way of life, a life-style of the black community; and the will for survival. Thus to seek to understand the blues apart from the suffering that created them is to misinterpret them and distort the very creativity that defines them (Cone, 1980).

Nowadays the blues revolve around the meaning of sadness but doesn’t have a true message of fighting for survival or deprivation of freedom. In the process of searching for the modern day blues, it was discovered that the music is compiled by mostly Caucasian artist compared to the past where it was conceived by blacks to prompt their practices and beliefs.