what did the blues sing about

Full Answer

What is a blues song?

Blues songs are lyrical rather than narrative; blues singers are expressing feelings rather than telling stories. The emotion expressed is generally one of sadness or melancholy, often due to problems of love but also oppression and hard times.

How did blues music develop?

Early blues music was very slow and emotional using simple harmonies with a vocalist accompanied by a guitar. Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson made the blues style very popular in the 1920s. By the 1940s and 50s, the style had developed further and included a range of other instruments.

Why do some blues songs repeat the first line?

The repetition of the first line gives them time to think up the third line. For example, from Crossroad Blues by Robert Johnson: Many blues songs feature a short instrumental break (solo) after each line – a form of call and response. The lyrics are raw and full of emotion, dwelling on love and loneliness.

What influenced the Blues Music in Georgia?

The blues of Georgia and the Carolinas is noted for its clarity of enunciation and regularity of rhythm. Influenced by ragtime and white folk music, it is more melodic than the Texas and Mississippi styles. Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller were representative of this style.

What were the original blues songs about?

Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans. Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa.

What was the purpose of the blues music?

Blues music thus originated as a non-verbal language, as a necessity to express feelings of pain and grief, and in this way as a tool of (passive) resistance. It became an instrument of cultural affirmation among African- Americans, and more importantly, specifically made for African-Americans (Salaam 1995).

What is the true meaning of the blues?

Definition of the blues : a feeling of sadness or depression I've got (a case of) the blues.

What music did the blues influence?

The blues has become the basis for nearly every form of American popular music over the past 100 years: jazz, R&B, rock, hip-hop.

What are the main characteristics of blues music?

The main features of blues include: specific chord progressions, a walking bass, call and response, dissonant harmonies, syncopation, melisma and flattened 'blue' notes. Blues is known for being microtonal, using pitches between the semitones defined by a piano keyboard.

What was the blues a reminder of?

After thousands of African American farm workers migrated north to cities like Chicago and Detroit during both World Wars, many began to view traditional blues as an unwanted reminder of their humble days toiling in the fields; they wanted to hear music that reflected their new urban surroundings.

How do you identify blues music?

blues is usually in 4/4 time. there is syncopation to emphasise the weak beats. swing rhythms are heard- quavers are uneven and give a triplet feel to the beat. early blues music was very slow but got faster as the style developed.

Are the blues sad?

If you have the so-called blues, you might feel sad or tearful, want to spend time by yourself, and lack your usual energy or motivation. These feelings usually tend to be pretty mild, though, and they generally pass before too long.

Who started blues music?

Handy. While is there isn't a definite origin as to who exactly created the Blues, we do have a good idea as to how it came to us today:W.C. Handy. William Christopher Handy was born in Alabama in 1873 and who worked a number of odd jobs before establishing himself as both a musician and a music teacher.

Why was the blues created?

The origins of the blues are poorly documented, but it is believed that after the American Civil War (1861–65), formerly enslaved African Americans and their descendants created this genre while working on Southern plantations, taking inspiration from hymns, minstrel show music, work songs and field hollers, ragtime, ...

What does blues music consist of?

However, several common characteristics can be identified. Guitar and vocals are the instruments most frequently heard in blues music. Other instruments commonly heard are piano, harmonica, drums, and bass. Early on, not only were the lyrics of the blues improvised, but the instruments as well.

Where did the blues music come from?

The origins and birth of the blues Although the blues evolved in the southern states of the USA from the late 19th century, it has lots of musical influences from Africa. African enslaved people brought their musical traditions with them when they were transported to work in the North American colonies.

Why was the blues created?

The origins of the blues are poorly documented, but it is believed that after the American Civil War (1861–65), formerly enslaved African Americans and their descendants created this genre while working on Southern plantations, taking inspiration from hymns, minstrel show music, work songs and field hollers, ragtime, ...

How did the blues influence rock and roll?

As blues music developed, it pushed the emergence of rock and roll more and more. Early rock and roll followed a similar rhythm to blues music as well. As it progressed, rock and roll would end up integrating more intense rhythmic elements with an accentuated backbeat, but the foundation was the same.

Where did the blues music come from?

The origins and birth of the blues Although the blues evolved in the southern states of the USA from the late 19th century, it has lots of musical influences from Africa. African enslaved people brought their musical traditions with them when they were transported to work in the North American colonies.

What does blues music consist of?

However, several common characteristics can be identified. Guitar and vocals are the instruments most frequently heard in blues music. Other instruments commonly heard are piano, harmonica, drums, and bass. Early on, not only were the lyrics of the blues improvised, but the instruments as well.

What does the blues mean?

By the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday.

What is the genre of blues?

Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans.

Why is blues music so poorly documented?

This music is poorly documented, partly because of racial discrimination in U.S. society, including academic circles, and partly because of the low rate of literacy among rural African Americans at the time. Reports of blues music in southern Texas and the Deep South were written at the dawn of the 20th century.

Why is the blues called the Igbo?

This melancholy has led to the suggestion of an Igbo origin for blues because of the reputation the Igbo had throughout plantations in the Americas for their melancholic music and outlook on life when they were enslaved.

How many times are the lines repeated in blues?

The lyrics of early traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the so-called "AAB" pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Two of the first published blues songs, " Dallas Blues " (1912) and " Saint Louis Blues " (1914), were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. W.C. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times. The lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody.

What is the most common form of blues?

The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common.

How many bars are in a 12 bar blues?

The blues chords associated to a twelve-bar blues are typically a set of three different chords played over a 12-bar scheme. They are labeled by Roman numbers referring to the degrees of the progression. For instance, for a blues in the key of C, C is the tonic chord (I) and F is the subdominant (IV).

When did the blues start?

Blues emerged as a hot, new popular music style in 1912 with W.C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues.” From its rural roots, blues music evolved through the decades and developed into varieties that suited urban environments and changing times.

What is the blues music genre?

Blues music encompasses a variety of musical styles and has included many different sounds, feelings, moods, and meanings over the years. Musical characteristics of the blues are essential components in other forms of American music, including country, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, rock & roll, funk, soul, and hip hop. Often there is no distinction between blues and these related genres, as elements of the blues are so firmly embedded in them.

What were the most popular blues styles in the 1930s?

Popular blues styles in the 1930s included blues crooning, hokum, and big band swing. The first big hit of the relaxed, crooning style was “How Long, Low Long Blues,” recorded by singer and pianist Leroy Carr and guitarist Scrapper Blackwell for Vocalion in 1928.

What was the name of the song that Hokum Blues sang?

Hokum blues was upbeat, party music with humorous lyrics rich in sexual analogies and innuendo. Popular titles included “Banana in Your Fruitbasket” and “Let Me Play with Yo’ Yo-Yo.” “It’s Tight Like That,” by the guitar and piano duo of Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, set off this wave in 1928.

What was the name of the music genre in the 1940s?

In 1949, Billboard magazine gave their Race Records chart a new name – Rhythm and Blues. The chart still tracked the popularity of records by black artists in a variety of genres, but in the late 1940s, the term was coming to define a distinct style of music. The contemporary blues sounds coming out of urban centers were beginning to be called rhythm and blues.

What are the notes of blues music?

The melody notes in blues songs provide the music with a distinctive sound and feel. For comparison, first listen to a major diatonic scale, one of the most commonly used scales in Western music.

What was swing music?

Swing was an incarnation of jazz music that emphasized song arrangements and orchestrations focused on sections of instruments, which included trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and rhythm (piano, guitar, bass, and drums). Many swing hits were blues songs built on blues scales or the standard twelve- and eight-bar forms.

When did the blues start?

The beginnings of the blues can be traced to the late 1860s , arguably the most vicious and violent period in the United States. Vigilante justice was at an all-time high, and by 1889, the lynching of African Americans surged dramatically. The bluesman and blueswoman emerged in this difficult period, along with the stories of folk heroes translated to song and the new venues in which the music would be performed. The blues did not speak of the life of the enslaved but of the experiences of freed men and women during the periods of Reconstruction and Jim Crow. It spoke of cotton bales/gins, boll weevil, juke houses, and sharecropping. Farming and sharecropping were the starting places for most of the legendary blues musicians celebrated today, including Charlie Patton, Rubin Lacey, Son House, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters and the most famous in recent generations, B.B. King.

How did the Great Migration affect the blues?

The Great Migration directly influenced the blues’ many evolutions. As Black people moved from the South to northern cities, the music reflected the new urban terrain in which the people set up communities. However, the general belief that the blues comes out of slavery lasts to this day, passed down from its predecessors, ...

What did Bukka White do for the Mississippi State Penitentiary?

Now known as the Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman Farm was a convict lease hub, which spawned the business of kidnapping freed Black men who landed there for free labor.

What was Stagger Lee's song inspired by?

This also changed the dynamic of songs. It is during this period that we began to hear songs of men such as Stagger Lee, a song inspired by an actual murder that took place in 1895 in a St. Louis, Missouri, bar room argument. It also made the newspaper under the headline “Shot in Curtis’s Place.”.

Who sang Mississippi Boweavil Blues?

On June 14, 1929 Patton recorded “ Mississippi Boweavil Blues ”: “Sees a little boll weevil keeps movin’ in the, Lordie! You can plant your cotton and you won’t get a half a bale, Lordie.”. These lyrics are a fitting example of the the relationship between farmers, cotton and the boll weevil. YouTube. Subscribe.

Who was the pioneer of the Delta Blues?

From this point on, we would hear many songs addressing the boll weevil. One in particular is by the legendary Charley Patton, a pioneer and one of the most influential practitioners of the Delta Blues. Born near Bolton in southern Mississippi in 1891, Patton and his family relocated to the Dockery Farms Plantation around 1900, a place where many early blues legends either passed through or lived. On June 14, 1929 Patton recorded “ Mississippi Boweavil Blues ”: “Sees a little boll weevil keeps movin’ in the, Lordie! You can plant your cotton and you won’t get a half a bale, Lordie.” These lyrics are a fitting example of the the relationship between farmers, cotton and the boll weevil.

Who sang the songs of the newly migrated freed African Americans?

Howlin’ Wolf, another Chicago Blues legend and Muddy’s label mate, who also migrated from Mississippi, sang the songs of the newly migrated freed African Americans. Wolf, born Chester Arthur Burnett, in West Point, Mississippi, learned how to play the guitar from Charley Patton.

What does it mean to have the blues?

Blues music is characterised by sad melodies and even today the expression 'having the blues' means you are feeling gloomy. Early blues music was very slow and emotional using simple harmonies with a vocalist accompanied by a guitar. Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson made the blues style very popular in the 1920s.

What are the lyrics of the blues?

Blues lyrics. The lyrics are raw and full of emotion, dwelling on love and loneliness. They tell of injustice and hopelessness, and the longing for a better life. They were passed on from musician to musician through oral tradition. They often use slang and double meanings.

What instruments were used in the Delta Blues?

The guitar and harmonica were used to accompany vocals in the Delta blues as they were easy to carry around. The style is very rhythmic, has strong vocals and simple but powerful lyrics and slide guitar featured prominently in the music.

What were the early African American music styles?

Early types of African American music included spirituals (religious songs using vocal harmony) and work songs. Enslaved people would sing work songs while working the plantations and religious spirituals in church. Combined with the African rhythms, these musical styles were the foundation of blues.

What is the land of song?

While that name is often associated with the singing of romanticised folk songs, traditional hymns and rousing anthems, it's little wonder that blues music, with its unique harmonies and melancholic lyrics has been popular in Wales ever since the genre arrived on its shores at the beginning of the 20th century.

How many beats are in a blues song?

Most blues songs: have four beats in a bar. are built on the 12-bar blues form. use three four-bar phrases. They have a three-line verse structure where the second line repeats the first, for example A A B. Sometimes singers improvise the words. The repetition of the first line gives them time to think up the third line.

When did the blues spread?

In the early 20th century large numbers of people started to move to industrial cities. After the Civil War and the emancipation of enslaved people, the blues spread, together with the people who sang and played it.

Why is blues called blues?

Perhaps because of the sad condition that brought about its emergence, along with its typical lyrics, it is called "blues".

What are some interesting facts about blues music?

By Gemtracks Staff May 27th, 2021. Blues is a unique genre of music, packed with feelings and constantly enjoyed by a lot of people. It is rhythmic and sometimes described as expressive because most of its singers sing songs and notes that mean something to them, ...

Why are there so many double meanings in blues music?

You would also find a lot of double meanings and slangs in the lyrics of Blues music. This was so that their masters could not understand the meanings of their songs. You would also want to know that in the earlier days the lyrics were made up of a sentence repeated four times.

What are the different types of blues music?

Some of the most popular styles include delta blues, country blues, down-home blues, urban blues, harmonica blues, Chicago blues, Texas Blues, folk-blues and many others.

Why is the Empress of Blues called the Empress of Blues?

This remarkable lady performed in her birth name an because of her exceptional skills, she was also popularly called "the Empress of Blues". In her time, no other female artist rivalled her even from other genres. She was very influential and well known in the United States.

What does the name "Blues" mean?

The Name "Blues" is a Symbol of "Sadness and Depression. There Are More than 4 Different Types of Blues. Blues Used to be Sung as Acappella. The Lyrics of Blues Music are Usually Packed With Emotions, Mostly Dwelling on Sadness and Loneliness. There is No Single Inventor of Blues Music. The First Blues Recording was Made by a Woman.

What does the blue devil mean?

This name came about the expression, "Blue Devils" which means the hallucination one can get when they are withdrawing from alcohol, known as 'hangover' these days . With time, the expression was shortened to "the blues" and likened to the feeling of agitation and depression.

What was the name of the blues singer who played a nine string guitar?

This Mississippi bluesman was famed for playing an unorthodox nine-string guitar and in 1935 he recorded (under the name Joe Williams’ Washboard Blues Singers) “Baby Please Don’t Go,” which became one of the most popular blues songs of all time.

What is the Delta Blues classic?

Considered a delta blues classic, the record also epitomized the “boogie” style with its rhythmic syncopations. The tune has been a favorite of other bluesmen (Slim Harpo, Buddy Guy, and Freddy King have all recorded it) and even rock bands; Led Zeppelin once included it in a medley they recorded for BBC radio in 1969.

What is Muddy Waters famous for?

The record was a spirited revamp of a 1929 tune by Tennessean country bluesman Hambone Willie Newbern and found Waters punctuating his soulful growl with searing slide guitar licks underpinned by Ernest “Big” Crawford’s driving bass line. The song was previously recorded by Robert Johnson (in 1936) and was resurrected in 1966 by the British blues-influenced supergroup Cream on their debut LP Fresh Cream. – Charles Waring

What is the meaning of "I think I'll dust my broom"?

This seminal blues number, written by Robert Johnson in 1936 – when it was titled “I Think I’ll Dust My Broom” – is a metaphor for sexual frustration. It was a Top 10 R&B hit on the Trumpet label for the Mississippi axe-slinger and singer Elmore (or Elmo) James in 1952, who electrified the song with searing (and now much-imitated) slide guitar fills and welded it to a driving shuffle beat. James’ urgent, amplified blues style profoundly impacted many young British bands in the 60s, including the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac (who covered “Dust My Broom” on their 1968 album Mr. Wonderful ). – Charles Waring

What was the song that he wrote with Willie Dixon?

He had a productive association with the Windy City’s Chess label between 1955 and 1968; one of his most popular sides was this one, “Help Me,” a chugging, infectious groove which he co-wrote with Willie Dixon and was the lead track on Williamson’s 1966 LP, More Real Folk Blues, a collection of singles.

What was Robert Johnson's last song?

Robert Johnson – Me And The Devil Blues. One of the last recordings he made, released on the Vocalion label in 1938, this classic fable about Satan calling in a debt, helped to fuel the long-held myth that Johnson had made a Faustian pact with the devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for musical success.

Where was Muddy Waters born?

Though he was born in the Mississippi delta region – the cradle of the blues – Muddy Waters became synonymous with the electric sound of Chicago blues. Before Waters plugged in, he recorded the single “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” in 1950 for the Windy City Aristocrat label (which soon afterwards became Chess Records).

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