Search results
Robert Johnson
- Robert Johnson, a trailblazing musician born in 1911, fundamentally shaped the blues genre and inspired rock ‘n roll. Johnson changed how blues music was played by using new guitar techniques like fingerpicking, slide guitar, and open tunings.
blueschronicles.com › robert-johnson-from-a-crossroads-to-legendary-status-how-he-redefined-the-blues-genre-foreverRobert Johnson: the Musical Legacy That Shaped the Blues ...
People also ask
Who were the pioneers of blues music?
Who created blues music?
Why is Robert Johnson considered the greatest blues musician of all time?
Who influenced blues music?
Jun 2, 2015 · At the center of the Dockery Farms story is Charley Patton, considered the father of the Delta Blues. His father, Bill, and mother, Annie, moved to Dockery with their 12 children when he was about ...
Feb 21, 2024 · Pioneers such as Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, and Ma Rainey became blues stars, making significant tracks and records that would help set the direction of the genre. “ Crazy Blues ” by Mamie Smith is often credited as one of the first vocal blues records released and paved the way for other artists.
- Musicnotes
Sep 27, 2023 · Bessie Smith is regarded as a pioneer of blues music for her incredible vocal talent and ability to convey deep emotion through her performances. She played a crucial role in popularizing and expanding the blues genre, paving the way for future generations of artists.
Key Takeaways. Robert Johnson, a trailblazing musician born in 1911, fundamentally shaped the blues genre and inspired rock ‘n roll. Johnson changed how blues music was played by using new guitar techniques like fingerpicking, slide guitar, and open tunings.
- Overview
- Form
The blues is a form of secular folk music created by African Americans in the early 20th century, originally in the South. Although instrumental accompaniment is almost universal in the blues, the blues is essentially a vocal form. Blues songs are usually lyrical rather than narrative because the expression of feelings is foremost.
Where did the blues get its name?
In the 19th century the English phrase blue devils referred to the upsetting hallucinations brought on by severe alcohol withdrawal. This was later shortened to the blues, which described states of depression and upset, and it was later adopted as the name for the melancholic songs that the musical genre encapsulates.
How did the blues begin as a musical genre?
The origins of the blues are poorly documented, but it is believed that after the American Civil War (1861–65), formerly enslaved African Americans and their descendants created this genre while working on Southern plantations, taking inspiration from hymns, minstrel show music, work songs and field hollers, ragtime, and popular music of the Southern white population.
Why is the blues considered the “Devil’s music”?
Although instrumental accompaniment is almost universal in the blues, the blues is essentially a vocal form. Blues songs are lyrical rather than narrative; blues singers are expressing feelings rather than telling stories. The emotion expressed is generally one of sadness or melancholy, often due to problems of love but also oppression and hard times. To express this musically, blues performers use vocal techniques such as melisma (sustaining a single syllable across several pitches), rhythmic techniques such as syncopation, and instrumental techniques such as “choking” or bending guitar strings on the neck or applying a metal slide or bottleneck to the guitar strings to create a whining voicelike sound.
As a musical style, the blues is characterized by expressive “microtonal” pitch inflections (blue notes), a three-line textual stanza of the form AAB, and a 12-measure form. Typically the first two and a half measures of each line are devoted to singing, the last measure and a half consisting of an instrumental “break” that repeats, answers, or complements the vocal line. In terms of functional (i.e., traditional European) harmony, the simplest blues harmonic progression is described as follows (I, IV, and V refer respectively to the first or tonic, fourth or subdominant, and fifth or dominant notes of the scale):
Phrase 1 (measures 1–4) I–I–I–I
Britannica Quiz
Pop Culture Quiz
Phrase 2 (measures 5–8) IV–IV–I–I
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Dec 18, 2020 · Ma Rainey Is Best Known as a Pioneer of the Blues. But She Broke More Than Musical Barriers. 9 minute read. Ma Rainey and her band the Rabbit Foot Minstrels circa 1924 in Chicago, Illinois....
May 9, 2018 · One in particular is by the legendary Charley Patton, a pioneer and one of the most influential practitioners of the Delta Blues. Born near Bolton in southern Mississippi in 1891, Patton and his family relocated to the Dockery Farms Plantation around 1900, a place where many early blues legends either passed through or lived.
