The Blues Music Analysis

In one way shape or form Blues music has influenced almost every music artist and their work. Jazz and Blues gave way to such artists as Elvis Presley and Chuck Barry. The history and origins of Blues traces back many generations. Many articles have been written over the years helping readers better understand the history and importance of Blues music. All the articles have a similar attitude toward The Blues. Each article makes Blues Music's social and musical importance and impact blaringly obvious.

The musical genre of blues is one that has continued to be a prolific style of music for many years. The blues began as working songs and field hollers sung by African American slave communities, beginning in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. The blues genre has since become a major influence on other developing genres. Most modern genres can be traced back to the genre, originating in the deep south of the United States. The musical style of blues is very distinct, and is identifiable to almost anyone. The many instruments generally used include acoustic guitar, bass, body and voice, piano and harmonica, as well as several others. In terms of production elements, traditional blues music is produced using minimal

Bentonia - a very small town in Mississippi with a population of 500 as of 2000

Blues is a music genre originating in Africa .This genre emerged with the introduction of African people as slaves to America's south. Slaves were employed in poor conditions in the cotton fields before the Civil War. Making music meant avoiding the pain for them. People think Blues music is slow and smooth because the lyrics of the Blues music always includes depression, loneliness and anger.

“Crazy Blues” by Noble Sissle is a cover of the song originally written by Perry Bradford. This timeless piece of history was first recorded on August 10th, 1920 by Mamie Smith and later released on as a vinyl record by Okeh Records.3 Smith’s version of the song was wildly successful, selling 75,000 copies in the first month following its release. Within a year, the record had sold over a million copies, and in all, two million copies were purchased.4 After its incredible success, recording companies rushed to record other African American singers. Noble Sissle’s version was recorded later that same year, and had similar success. Despite the large quantity of blues recordings during the 1920’s, “Crazy Blues” is considered the first successful blues song recorded by an African American artist.9 Ironically, “Crazy Blues” is considered more of a popular song than a blues song despite many references to “blues” throughout the track. Nevertheless, this song paved the way for black music makers into a then predominately-white recording industry, and quickly after its release, a market for black music emerged. Perry Bradford, who wrote “Crazy Blues”, also persuaded several record companies to invest in a music market specifically for blacks.9 After record companies realized the lucrativeness of selling “race

Different from other forms of music, blues was only recorded by memory and passed down through generations through live performances. The blues began in the North Mississippi Delta post Civil War times. It was heavily influenced by African roots, field hollers, ballads, church music and rhythmic dance tunes called jump-ups. This eventually developed into music that was set up in a call-and- response way so that the singer would sing a line and he would then respond with his guitar.

In my opinion I thought the song was great. It had a nice bluesy feel and was relaxing to listen to him. King is such a great lyricist and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him during this tune. Many people recognize B.B. by this tune and I can see why. His take on the song is very original and unique only to him. I truly enjoyed learning about the King of the Blues throughout this project and through his

Out of all the topics for our assigned Research Paper, I decided to write about the forgotten history of African Americans, the systemic oppression we faced and how that in turn affected the way society views black women blues music. There could be many reasons why so many students are never taught the untold history African american culture and how black woman helped shape the blues. All throughout my experience in the education system I can remember very select few times where I was taught about African Americans that did something positive for our community besides Martin Luther King Jr, Harriet Tubman, and the same famous historical scholars that we always repeatedly learn about throughout the school system. I was always taught to have

Stone, Caitlin. "Lost And Found: The Fall of Grace in SONNY’S BLUES." Explicator 71.4 (2013): 251-254. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 July 2015.

The narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” states “For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how many triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.” This quote is in consonance with what the story is portraying, which is that people always endure struggle, but can find themselves progressing forward in life doing what they love to do. In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, the narrator and Sonny are bothers who go down different paths, in which Sonny turns to drugs and the narrator goes to college to become a teacher. Sonny goes to prison for selling and using drugs and the narrator is in disbelief, but he remembers what his mother told him, which is to always watch over and protect his little brother. As darkness pervades, the narrator finds it difficult to be his brother’s keeper, understand the issue with drugs and alcohol, and to understand why so many blacks were physically and mentally imprisoned.

"Sonny's Blues" was written in 1957, but carries a vital social message in our society today of people trying to understand one another and find their identity. "Sonny's Blues" not only states dramatically the motive for Baldwin's famous polemics in the cause of Black Freedom, but it also provides an esthetic linking his work, in all literary genres, with the cultures of the Black ghetto (Reilly 56). To truly understand Baldwin's purpose in writing "Sonny's Blues" about finding your identity, we need to analyze the story by using principles: plotline, point of view, character, setting, tone, style, theme, and imagery.

Sonny’s Blues is one of the famous stories expressing the deplorable conditions the Black community found themselves in during the struggle against racial segregation in the American history. The analysis given by John M. Reilley is to draw the attention of the readers and audience on the image of the black community, basically as expressed by Sonny’s Blues as a metaphor. Following the publication of Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin realized he had a role in the African American Civil Rights Movement (Baldwin, 69). The story articulates the thoughts and experiences of the racial violence and oppression that was being experienced by the black Americans at the time. Through the story, the writer treats the issues of segregation and racism in a lesser manner as compared to several of his works, but the weight is felt at different levels.

Before the performance began, the narrator observed that Sonny “put both hands on his heart and bowed from the waist” (Baldwin 310). Shortly after, they began to play and the narrator came to the epiphany that each musician had their own voice through their instrument. As the musicians talk to each other through their improvisation of playing, Creole pushes Sonny to speak for himself. The narrator watched his brother suffering to play the piano, as if he were scared. What Creole really wanted was for “Sonny to leave the shoreline and strike out for the deep water” (Baldwin 311). In a religious view, one can see how the performance symbolizes a baptism. Sonny confessed his sins to his brother during their conversation after the revival meet

Sonny Rollins was one of the composers that MDC jazz faculty and students utilized for their songs. He is a jazz tenor/soprano saxophonist, as well as a composer and bandleader. Rollins is an influential jazz musician. He was born in New York City, and made his first recordings in 1949. His real name is Theodore Walter Rollins. He is still active and alive at an age of 85. His main genres are jazz and hard bop. Sonny Rollins joined Miles Davis Quintet and the Max Roach, Clifford Brown quintet. He had many awards such as Grammy award for best improvised jazz solo in

It is hard to imagine the popular music industry today without themes of queerness. From Tracy Chapman to Sam Smith, Tegan and Sara to Elton John, many genres of music feature successful queer musicians who often openly sing about their own loves and desires. However, even today, these queer experiences are not widely accepted or common in the music world, and the genders of their love interests are left shrouded in lyrical ambiguity. This renders some of the blues records recorded by African-American artists nearly one hundred years ago even more surprising. Some of the incredibly famous blues queens in New York City identified as lesbian or bisexual and sometimes, albeit rarely, indicated explicitly as such in their lyrics. (Others kept their sexualities very private.) Some were married to men, some to women, but all were faced opression due to their race, gender, and sexual orientation. This playlist features songs from blues musicians of the 1920’s that focus on queer