Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Early History Of Blues Music

Blues music history can be traced all the way back to the nineteenth century. By far, the earliest genre of traditional blues music, comes directly from a musical technique termed the "country blues", dating back to around the 1920's. Obtaining the facts surrounding the oldest origins of blues music is something a good number of historians have focused a lot of energy and money trying to uncover (some going as far as visiting locations within west Africa in order to discover whether or not this unique music genre was created because of an influence from conventional African music). While there does actually appear to be some parallels, blues music carries a distinct and unique sound which began with the African American community inside the southern part of the U.S.

The very meaning of "blues" inside the dictionary implies "1. depression 2. melancholy kind of jazz". Musicians are accustomed to associating the blues with the typical and famous 12 bar blues. This particular type of chord progression utilizes three chords which may be played inside any key. Together with the profound vocals which most often goes along with the chords, blues music expresses and also invokes a different feeling of emotions generally in most of its listeners and supporters.

A number of well-known, early blues musicians who helped form the blues music we all know today. Some of these artists were Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Huddie Ledbetter, Willie Brown, Son House and Tommy Johnson. Many of these blues artists were born within the Mississippi delta, with the exception of a few like Blind Lemon Jefferson (who was from Texas) and Huddie Ledbetter (who was from Louisiana).

The two beginning methods associated with blues music were:

1. classic blues (composed of mainly female performers)
2. the country blues (composed of generally guy performers).

Every type of blues offered distinct variations in form and tone. Classic blues singers had a relatively stringent adherence on the 12 bar blues as the country blues performers strayed just a little out of the conventional 12 bar blues form. Furthermore, classic blues singers desired to get a band to compliment with them while a country blues performer would usually want to include only his guitar as well as voice to produce music.

Blues music actually started to take off during the early times of the 1920's, once one particular organization took their music revenue to a whole different degree. A lady singer named Mamie Smith, part of the classic blues form, served to start the blues by selling more than 1 million copies of her music within just twelve months. Figuring that each of the records were less than $ 1 (low-priced by today standard nevertheless in those days it absolutely was quite a lot for this type of music) that could have added up to a whole lot of money for a new to the scene industry.

Blues music is a special aspect of our history that is uniquely American. Not many styles of music fire up deep emotion and move us the way that the blues does.

Around the world, the best jazz and blues fests are transpiring annually. For anyone who is thinking about tracking down more schedules or more knowledge about universal jazz and blues festivals, there are a lot of different resources out there to assist in your festival planning.


View the original article here

No comments:

Post a Comment