blues

Blues music originated in the cotton fields of the southern United States where the majority of the slave hands were put to work. “The earliest folk-blues were sung by nameless African-Americans living and working in the South’s cotton belt in the early 1880’s and 1890’s- in particular, the region from the Mississippi Delta to East Texas”(Barlow 3). It was believed that this began as a call and response style, which matured into the work song. From that standpoint, after the release of the slaves, the work song then matured into their Spirituals, and later was introduced to the whites through black-faced Minstrel of Medicine shows (How the Blues Overview). As the music matured and became more renowned, its influence became prominent in the music styles of the time, and in the intertwining relationships between the races. “The music was a unique and cultural offering that whites could not deny. It was something new and intriguing to whites that shed a new light on blacks and their place in American culture and society”(Overview). The music did not seem to have the same color restrictions as the music previously performed. It drew blacks and whites together in a place where everyone could leave the Jim Crow laws at the door (Overview). This offered a new and beneficial lifestyle for the blacks as well as the whites. Maybe the interest was that the white people had found a new talent to exploit and from which to make easy money, or perhaps, maybe it was because the whites genuinely understood the cultural significance in the music and respected this talent of the black race enough to overcome racial and cultural differences.
Although it was socially acceptable for the Blues musicians to write, compose and produce their music, it was frowned upon, until the late 1950's, that the teenage generation be exposed to black Blues musicians. However, white Blues musicians were another story. The distribution of Blues music was eased into the public by using white covers of black artists (Covers and Dances). Ironically enough, the white covers of these black artist’s music never climbed as high on the top-seller list as the ones originally put out by the black musicians themselves. In 1956, white musician Pat Boone did a cover of the black Blues artist Little Richard's “Tutti Frutti" that reached number 1...

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...use of Blues music that white kids ventured into black areas and had a sense of “fair play” long before the civil rights movement (Blues and Rock). As there will always be, there were those people who were disgusted with this sort of music, behavior, belief, and lifestyle. However, historically and recently, this is disregarded as “conservative fluff" and discarded in a hurry. Once the Blues got this far, there was no mercy and no turning back. It seemed as though Blues music did more for the civil rights movement than Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education (Blues and Rock). Blues was similar to a small leak on a dam, and once the water broke through, it was best to watch it run its course.
Traditional Blues music is reflected in modern music, which displays vague or blatant Blues influences. However, the Napoleons of the Blues shall never be forgotten because they fought a war America had at one time decided it could never win. The music instilled faith into the hearts of many black Americans and at the same time instilled empathy and passion in the white Americans. It not only congregated people, it congregated two separate cultures, both as different as black and white.