The Blues

Week One Written Assignment: The Blues

Jamie Adams

Roll Over Beethoven HUMU 320

September 6, 2016

Michael Bower

Abstract

This paper explores the origins, the history, and the unique characteristics of the blues.  It describes the blues in general and discusses in detail what makes the blues the blues.  It discusses blues music as originating from slave work songs and spirituals and eventually merging into American popular music today.  It also discusses how the evolution of these songs came to be known as the blues music.  This paper discusses how the blues format is different from any other style of music and how to notice if it is a blues format.  It examines the unique characteristics of the 12-bar blues bar format and the AAB lyric sequence.  This paper discusses what characteristics make the blues unique.  It goes into detail of the different styles of each type of blues music and where and how they each originated.  

Week One Written Assignment: The Blues

The blues can be described as an African American music that includes a range of emotions and styles.  They are also described as the genre of feelings.  The blues is about tradition and personal expression.  They are the foundation of all popular styles of music today.  In essence, it is the backbone of all styles of music and probably for more to come.  There are more blues festivals worldwide today than ever before, in part because of the shaping of this genre into all styles of music.  The blues have taken on many different forms.  They started out as simply acoustic song lyrics (slave work songs and spirituals) and have evolved into musical instruments with saxophones and harmonicas.  The trademark sound of these instruments and the notes they play make the blues a distinctive genre of music from all other types.  

All of today’s music originates, in some form, from the blues.  However, they blues differs from these types of music in several ways.  The blues sometimes referred to as pop music only better “with more importance for clean and over driven guitars, groovy bass and soft drums.  It is often typically characterized by employment of specific blues scales, bluesy chord progressions and call and response patterns” (Pradhyumnan, 2014).  Call and response is a style in which “the lead singer (or instrumentalists) and a group of singers (or players) alternate phrases, with the leader usually being allowed more freedom to elaborate his part” (Starr & Waterman, 2014, pg 28).  Unlike other songs the blues song is not written in musical form, so that it cannot be repeated.  Each blues song is unique and original. Blues becomes even more distinct this way by giving the performer or singer the ability to add their own attributes to their music.  This distinctive blues sound can be traced to the days when slavery was becoming popular.  

        The blues originated in the Mississippi Delta, an area just up river from New Orleans, LA.  In the late 1800’s African American slaves passed down their oral songs to each new generation.  These songs were integrated with the already existent American folk music and country music from the Appalachians.  The songs that the slaves were singing were called work songs or spirituals.  Work songs were sung by black workers for workers in rhythmic timing with the tasks being performed and spirituals were a type of sacred song created by the slaves to worship their god (Starr et al, 2014, pgs 25-27).   The phrase “feeling blue” came from the work songs because the slaves were singing about the injustice they endured and about their longing for a better way of life.  By the end of the 19th century it became popular to add these oral lyrics to music, thus forming the blues tradition.  The traditional country blues is the general term used to describe this original music from the Mississippi Delta, the Piedmont, and other rural areas (Kopp, 2005).  Classic blues were jazz songs shaped into vaudeville style formed in the 1920’s and in the 1940’s and 50’s the blues began to be called the “urban blues”, “electric blues”, or “Chicago blues” when musicians gained access to electric instruments (Mojohand, 2001).  By the end of the 20th century blues music had taken on its own role in the music industry and could be well distinguished by the 12-bar blues format.  

        The 12-bar blues format is what makes the blues so distinct.  Although it can subtly found in music from hip hop to rock and roll, the blues made it popular.  The term “12 bar” refers to the number of measures, or musical bars used to express the theme of a typical blues song, or in other words, how long each verse of the song is going to be (Hodge, 2016).  A 12-bar blues is divided into three four bar segments, with the first four measure phrase being played with just the root (also called the “I”) chord then the “IV” chord is switched for the first two measures of the second phrase and then it goes back to the root chord for the last two measures of that phrase (Hodge, 2016).  The blues is a difficult music to describe in words and is easier to describe by listening.  There can be variations to this 12-bar blues format yet each element contained in these formats makes the blues stand out alone amongst all other music.  

        The blues can be identified by a “three line AAB verse form and a characteristic use of the familiar blues chord progression (Mojohand, 2001).  The lyrics in this form a sung by the first and second lines being repeated and the third line is a response to the first and second (Hodge, 2016).  In other words it a question-question-answer format.  Nearly every blues song is played to a 4/4 time signature which means that there are four beats in every measure or bar and each quarter note is equal to the one beat (Hodge, 2016).  Other unique characteristics of the blues include particular slides, bends, and blue notes.  Another trademark of the blues is the unique harmonies, rhythms, and inflections it uses.  The blues does not have to be depressing or about sadness to make it the blues.  Willie Dixon, a famous blues composer and bassist explains “It’s got to be a fact, or it wouldn’t be blues”, which means the blues can be about the good and bad times in life (Pouska, n.d.).  With all the uniqueness that the blues has to offer and the structure that makes it the blues, individuals are still able to make their blues music their own, leaving different styles, types, and forms of the blues.