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1. Evolution of the Blues in Music Blues refers to the music genre that originated from the African-American societies mainly from the deep southern region of the United States in the late 19th century. The blues form of music is characterized by notes that are played gradually bent or flattened. The blues notes comprised 12 measures or bars. These notes are used in jazz music, rhythm and blues. The inventors of the blues included slaves and the descendants of the slaves. There is a general belief that the blues originated from African folk songs. The blues spread out significantly from the south in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The music quickly progressed into various styles according to regions. Well-known pioneers of blues music in the 1920s include Blind Lennon Jefferson, W.C. Handy, Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Son House. Blues exist in popular music in many areas today. The pioneers of the blues normally used guitars to play their music. Blues music is currently accompanied by both traditional instruments and pre-designed digital sounds unlike in the past. This has be...
Blues music emerged as an African American music genre derived from spiritual and work songs at the end of the 19th century and became increasingly popular across cultures in America. The Blues is the parent to modern day genre’s like jazz, rhythm and blue and even rock and roll, it uses a call-and-response pattern. While Blues songs frequently expressed individual emotions and problems, such as lost love, they were also used to express despair at social injustice. Even though Blues singing was started by men, it became increasing popular among women, creating one of the first feminist movements. Ma Rainey, a pioneer in women’s
The first appearance of jazz was at the turn of the century in New Orleans and is called “Dixieland Jazz,” or “Classic Jazz.” It developed out of music for street parades in the black community. It also had deeper roots in a style of music called “Blues,” which was used to express the daily experiences of the community (History). Other influences include the combination of West African folk music with the popular classical music of Europe, developing into syncopated rhythms and chord variations on classical pieces (Passion).
Blues has played an extreme role in todays’ music. The music genre of blues, helps us express ourselves in which you can feel it from the ubiquitous in the jazz to the blues scale and the specific chord progressions. To start off, the blues is musically originated by African Americans in the deep South of the United States. Growing up in a southern household, I was used to listening to a variety music, but blues was always most listened to. Every time I listen to blues, the lyrics often deal with personal adversity, and it goes far beyond pity.
Rhythm and Blues also known as R&B has become one of the most identifiable art-forms of the 20th Century, with an enormous influence on the development of both the sound and attitude of modern music. The history of R&B series of box sets investigates the accidental synthesis of Jazz, Gospel, Blues, Ragtime, Latin, Country and Pop into a definable from of Black music. The hardship of segregation caused by the Jim Crow laws caused a cultural revolution within Afro-American society. In the 1900s, as a method of self-expression in the southern states, the Blues gradually became a form of public entertainment in juke joints and dance halls picking up new rhythm along the way. In 1910, nearly five million African Americans left the south for the
The 20s was a very influential decade with large events such as the end of World War One, the release of F. Scott Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby” , “The Jazz Singer” which was the first talking motion picture to ever be shown in the US, and the start of the great depression. Blues music made its grand premiere during the 20s and continues to inspire and be prevalent today. The blues grew up in the Mississippi Delta just upriver from New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. Blues and jazz have always influenced each other, and they still interact in countless ways today. Blues was played primarily by African American slaves, ex slaves, and the different descendants of slaves. They would sing while picking cotton and digging through vegetable fields all about their troubles. Well-known blues pioneers from the 1920s such as Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson usually performed solo with just a guitar. The targeted effect that the blues and jazz music had on people was to relieve the stress and anger and pain of being in a dramatically changing society. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The nation's total economic wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, and this economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar “consumer
Perhaps the blues was representation of optimism and faith for the entire city of Harlem and all of African-American descent. Music is portrayed fluently and abundantly throughout the entire story of “Sonny’s Blues”. Despite the fact that Sonny frequently plays the piano, there is always a juke box playing, the “humming an old church song”, a “jangling beat of a tambourine”, a tune being whistled, or a revival meeting with the singing of religious words (Baldwin 293-307). The repetition of music in the short story is a realistic portrayal of how regular the blues, musically and emotionally, was present in an African-American’s life during the era of racial discrimination. Flibbert explains that the rooted, burdensome emotion felt by African Americans is difficult to put to words, other than describing it as the blues. He best defines the blues as “a mental and emotional state arising from recognition of limitation imposed-in the case of African-Americans-by racial barriers to the community” (Flibbert). Though a definite definition exists, the blues cannot simply be construed. To cope with this unexplainable feeling of blue, the African-American folk genre of jazz music was created. Finally, the blues was something African-Americans owned and that the white man could not strip them of. Though music appears to show up at the most troublesome times in “Sonny’s Blues”, it brings along “a glimmer of life within the
8. V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra, S. T. Erlewine. 2003. All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive
Musicologists have dated the ‘birth’ of blues to be around 1890 as a West African tradition involving blue indigo in which mourners at ceremonies would wear blue dyed attires to resemble their suffering . Although, blues derived from times of slavery, the Prohibition Era (1920’s), World War Two (1939-1945), and during the Vietnam War (predominantly 1960’s to 1970’s), it has been a continuously evolved form of music in America, in which the similarities have always remained; melancholy and protest.
Ragtime and Blues are different in that they originated from different places. Blues developed in the south. Blues is mainly a vocal music. It was emotional, in that the earliest form was singing and hand clapping. The blues started out with slaves because they would use it to sing about their pain and problems. However, ragtime was popular among many Americans and flourished. The term “ragged time” came to be used to describe its key trait which was syncopation. Ragtime music is tuneful, but it is primarily rhythmic. Whereas a blues song can be sung freely by one person, or a chorus, without a strict rhythm, ragtime is more like a march. The popularity of ragtime flourished at world fairs and was welcomed by many people. Both styles
During their time together, the members of The Beatles experimented with several different drugs. Drugs played a major role in the career of the Beatles as they influenced many of the songs as well as played a significant role on the bonding the band shared. Each band member had his own preference of drugs. However, the most significant impact drugs had on the Beatles were due from Preludin, cannabis, and LSD for reasons that were quite different.
In the years after slavery, the blues developed and expanded just as the bluesmen could spread it from place to place. It has a long history and stemmed during times of slavery which means it has to be this world for at least 200 years. And because of the blues, there are lots of best artists come out at that time,what African American black women like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith. Alberta Hunter could perform on stage, amazed their new American audience who were stunned by this soulful new genre. These good artists make the blues spray all over the world, let people enjoy this kind of music, and open a new gene music.
Singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey were the pioneers and inspirations to other black singer not just women but also men, they were also an inspiration in a state that they managed to get a better life. They transformed blues into a pop culture, which eventually opened an opportunity for black culture to emerged and recognized. They brought blues into a stage of professionalism, which later also gave the opportunity to the men blues to take part, and emerged to the music business. Blues was no longer merely a personal expression but also a way of earning a living. Blues was now offered a job beyond the plantation and a glamour life that were not possible before. Their blues were considered as country blues because it was different from the classic blues in the sense of the style. They performed accompanied by a jazz band in the clubs. It shown a togetherness and was different from a solitary performance usually did by men at that time, as historian Giles Oakley said that the blues women:
“Rhythm and blues is a combination of soulful singing and a strong backbeat” (Cahoon, 2004). Rhythm and blues was created by and for African Americans between the ends of World War II. By 1946 the style of swing music started to fade away where early R&B artists started breaking away from using big bands and emphasizing using blues-style vocals and song structures. “Billboard magazine coined the term rhythm and blues to rename its’, “race records,” chart in 1949, reflecting changes in the social status, economic power, and musical tastes of African Americans” (Cahoon, 2004). Rhythm and blues was like a stepping stone for the popularity of Rock and Roll. There were several focal points for rhythm and blues music, but the main focal point for early R&B originated in Atlanta, Georgia. The first radio station to play rhythm and blues was in 1949. Even though the R&B late night show on WGST was a big hit in the African American community, it featured a white disc jockey named Zenas “Daddy” Sears. (Cahoon, 2004)
Guitars were used because they had a broad range of notes, they were portable, affordable, and they were permitted by slave owners at that time. The slave owners didn't permit drums because they thought the drums could be used to signal to each other. There were many beginning Blues musicians but only a few had their songs written, published, or recorded.
The Beatles are known to many as one of the greatest bands of all time. Their music has