The History of Blues Music

October 30, 2010 by DaleR
Filed under: Blues History

Before the blues came along, there was little solo music in the African-American culture. With the emergence of the solo singer and instrumentalist, the lyrics became more individualized and the meaning of the music began to take on a more emotional tone.

Blues music was greatly influenced by the new freedom that the former slaves were experiencing. Nationally, the trend was to focus on the individual and individuality. This attitude was reflected in the blues lyrics.

Blues songs began to be released on piano rolls. Composers began to pick up on the new popular music and the word “blues” began to show up in the new song titles that were being released. W. C. Handy released the “Memphis Blues” im 1912. The first blues song style is considered to be “folk blues” but as the new freedon allowed the ex-slaves to migrate to the larger cities, the music and the people began to becom more urban. People went to New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Cleveland and other large cities.

As the musicians and the singers in these cities, each city developed it’s on particular styles. Memphis, New Orleans and Chicago are perhaps the most recognizable but each city had a particular edge that distinguished their brand of blues form others.

You can’t talk about the history of the blues without looking at the Chicago blues and the musicians that came out of Chicago. Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Sunnyland Slim, Buddy Guy,, Junior Walker, Little Walter, and many others are identified with the Chicago blues sound. Of course these artists are not originally from Chicago but they represent the Chicago blues tradition.

Memphis has also presented the world with some great bluesmen. BB King started in Memphis, Rufus Thomas and Ike Turner came out of the Memphis studios.

A story about Ike Turner and his song “Rocket 88 is that he and his band were on the way to Memphis to record and the amp was tied to the top of the car. It fell off and broke the speaker. They used it in the song anyway and that was, as far as we know,, the first time the fuzz-tone xound appeared on a record.