Know The Blues Music
Blues music is the name that given to both a musical form and genre that is primarily created by the African-American communities within the Deep South of the United States. It started in the nineteenth century and continued to make its way to the future.
Blues music was adopted from work songs, spirituals, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. This music genre can range from the country music to its urban form. This music genre can be anything from jazz, rock and roll and rhythm blues by following a chord progression as the twelve-bar blues chord.
Most blues music is characterized by the song’s melancholy and sadness. People listen to blues music when trying to relax and unwinding from the noise of our busy lives. Though it can be a song for sadness, it can also be relaxing due to its soft and mellow rhythms.
Here is some information to make us know more about the blues music genre:
Origins
Blues music originated from the influences from African music. It is when the African-American slaves brought their music traditions along to other nations and it continued over the generations. Some of the blues music includes also Christian gospel music's, usually used as worship songs. The blues music genre implies the sadness of the song, and the story behind its melancholic tempo.
Musical Style
Blues music exists in different musical variations. Most commonly, it is recognized by using a 12-bar structure in which there are three groupings of four notes that establish a specific tone for the whole song. Blues music has its notes that defines the melody with flat versions of the third, fifth and seventh notes for the song’s major scale. Traditional blues have their own specific rhythmic pattern which also identifies itself being a blues music.
Themes
Blues music has more to the song than just expressing sadness. It can be a song about grief, loss, broken heart, lost love, infidelity, pressure with work, and everyday struggles. It depicts the life of people that are emotionally struggling on something. Usually, when we listen to songs we can relate to at the moment, it can be our favorite song. This is why the most famous songs are the ones that have their own story which people can much relate to when we are listening.
History
One of the first Blues music that has been released was “The Memphis Blues” which was composed by W.C. Handy back in 1912. It is then followed by the “Crazy Blues” from African-American singer Mamie Smith in 1920. “Keep your lamp trimmed and burning” in 1927 sang by Blind Willie Johnson is a kind of blues song that is has a gospel feature in it. Bessie Smith is another famous blues singer of all time for her powerful voice. Muddy Walters made it with the Blues music industry in the 1950’s in which he introduced the modern blues school. Otis Rush is a singer-songwriter that was a pioneer of the “West side sound”, also from the 1950’s. B.B. King introduced electric blues in the 1950’s which brought a different edge to the blues music genre.
