The History of Blues Music: Part 3

April 24, 2011 by DaleR
Filed under: Blues History

Blues music took off. People in the music industry began to notice the Blues performers and their songs. More songs were made public and more songs were written. The record and sheet music companies began to market Blues music. Blues became so popular that a lot of music was released with the word Blues in the title that were not actually Blues. As the listeners increased the Blues became to be considered more middle of the road. People could go out and hear Blues music in places that would have never promoted that style of music before.

With the advent of the electric guitar, the Blues took a new turn. People wanted to hear the biting sounds of the Blues chords and scales in this new phenomenon. Now Chicago became the driving point of the Blues. Memphis and New Orleans began to take a backseat to the Chicago Blues

By thelate 1940′s and the early 1950′s, the Blues began to make a comeback. The electric guitars became louder and more driving and drums drove the sound now. More and more music was being developed to satisfy the thirst that the public had developed. The music was moving out of the African-American community and into more mainstream artists, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley all incorporated features of the Blues music into their Rock and Roll. Into the 1950′s the music no longer only belonged to the Afican-American community. All peoples were playing the Blues.

While Blues influences are evident an many different types of music, it is doing well on it’s own. There are many artists of all races playing with their own styles. Artists as diverse as B B King and Roy Rodgers, or Cattfish Keith and Kenny Wayne Shepherd continue to carry the torch in their own particular styles. It will be interesting to see the next level of evolution on the Blues.