Genre History: Blues

Genre History: Blues

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 mics, and room ambiance plays a large role in producing the sound of the music. Some of the first major names in blues music was Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Leadbelly and Robert Johnson; all of whom were major influences on the blues as a musical style.

Towards the end of the 19th century, music brought over to the states by African slaves began to develop. Work songs, chants and shouts were the beginnings of the earliest form of blues: Delta blues. Delta blues was so called after the Mississippi Delta, where the towns and plantations that the original blues men and women worked were located. “The guitar and the harmonica were the primary tool of the Delta bluesman, mostly due to the ease of carrying them around, and many of the musicians of the Early Blues era (1910-1950) were sharecroppers, or worked on one of the many plantations that were located across the Mississippi Delta.” (Gordon, 2014) As well as guitar and harmonica, homemade instruments such as the diddley bow were very common amongst Delt...

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...h Boy’. The song includes electric guitar, harmonica, bass, piano, drums and vocals. Importantly, the electric guitar, bass and drums are the most distinguishable instruments as ‘Chicago blues instruments’. These formed the basis of many future blues bands and left a legacy for Muddy Waters, who was the one of the famous bluesman to pioneer and popularise modern, or ‘urban’ blues styles. Later styles of the genre were influenced not only by Muddy Waters, but also names such as B.B. King and T-Bone Walker; shaping the westside subgenre which often included more classical brass instruments.

Many styles of blues demonstrate similar sonic characteristics. Additionally, these techniques and ideas carry on to many different genres. Repeated progressions of chords and a cyclic form pair with the call and response song scheme to form an easily distinguishable style.