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What are some facts about the Blues?
What is blues music?
When did blues music become popular?
Where did Blues come from?
Apr 11, 2022 · Blues is a musical genre that originated in the United States in the early 20th century. It is a genre of music that is characterized by its soulful sound and melancholy lyrics. Blues music is special because it combines the soulfulness of gospel music with the structure of jazz.
6 days ago · The blues is a genre of music that has captivated audiences for generations, with its soul-stirring melodies and poignant lyrics. Originating in the African-American communities of the southern United States, the blues has evolved into a powerful and influential art form that continues to resonate with people around the world.
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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
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Phrase 2 (measures 5–8) IV–IV–I–I
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
t. e. Blues is a music genre [3] and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. [2] Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture.
- 1860s, Deep South, U.S.
Sep 15, 2014 · The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. For further information, below are other facts about the Blues you might like. Facts about the Blues 1: Lyrics
Sep 3, 2021 · A Guide to the Blues History and Sound. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Sep 3, 2021 • 3 min read. American blues is a musical genre with enduring cultural importance that originated in the mid-nineteenth century.
Feb 3, 2021 · Here’s what you need to know to get you started. Blues music is a genre that grew out of the American dream. Its roots were firmly planted in the New World before it migrated to Europe and ...
