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1 day ago · Other genres, too, borrowed heavily from their parent. Metal, for example, is known for blistering guitar solos. One pattern used in blues music is call and response. Here, the singer calls out a line, and the band replies with a comment. Blues became known for improvisation, with musicians jamming without sheet music or planning. Blues and Relief
- What Is the History of the Blues? - TheCollector
The history of the blues is a story about American slavery,...
- What Is the History of the Blues? - TheCollector
Jan 26, 2024 · With its origins rooted deep in the Southern U.S., blues is a classic musical genre that has come to transcend both time and borders and impact people on a global level. The hardship, sadness, and triumph that it represents are universal to the human experience. Its soulful expression and rich history have made it a pillar not only of American ...
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The blues is a form of secular folk music created by African Americans in the early 20th century, originally in the South. Although instrumental accompaniment is almost universal in the blues, the blues is essentially a vocal form. Blues songs are usually lyrical rather than narrative because the expression of feelings is foremost.
Where did the blues get its name?
In the 19th century the English phrase blue devils referred to the upsetting hallucinations brought on by severe alcohol withdrawal. This was later shortened to the blues, which described states of depression and upset, and it was later adopted as the name for the melancholic songs that the musical genre encapsulates.
How did the blues begin as a musical genre?
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, and popular music of the Southern white population.
Why is the blues considered the “Devil’s music”?
Although instrumental accompaniment is almost universal in the blues, the blues is essentially a vocal form. 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. To express this musically, blues performers use vocal techniques such as melisma (sustaining a single syllable across several pitches), rhythmic techniques such as syncopation, and instrumental techniques such as “choking” or bending guitar strings on the neck or applying a metal slide or bottleneck to the guitar strings to create a whining voicelike sound.
As a musical style, the blues is characterized by expressive “microtonal” pitch inflections (blue notes), a three-line textual stanza of the form AAB, and a 12-measure form. Typically the first two and a half measures of each line are devoted to singing, the last measure and a half consisting of an instrumental “break” that repeats, answers, or complements the vocal line. In terms of functional (i.e., traditional European) harmony, the simplest blues harmonic progression is described as follows (I, IV, and V refer respectively to the first or tonic, fourth or subdominant, and fifth or dominant notes of the scale):
Phrase 1 (measures 1–4) I–I–I–I
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Phrase 2 (measures 5–8) IV–IV–I–I
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Blues is a music genre [3] and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. [2] Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture.
Feb 21, 2024 · The years from 1920 to 1930 were critical in the history of blues music. The boom of the recording industry added fuel to the spread of blues music, allowing artists to distribute their music further than ever. Record labels started to actively record African-American artists as they led the way in popular new genres, including blues and jazz.
- Musicnotes
A: Rhythm and blues (R&B) is a genre of popular music that combines elements of blues, jazz, and gospel music. Although it shares some similarities with blues music, R&B, on the other hand, tends to have a more upbeat and danceable rhythm. Furthermore, it often features a larger ensemble of musicians and vocalists.
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Mar 3, 2024 · The history of the blues is a story about American slavery, resistance, overcoming, and the birth of Western popular music. The catastrophic legacy of American Slavery gave rise to the blues, a musical style born in the African-American communities of the southern United States. The blues evolved over generations to include African musical ...
