What does blues mean in music?

Why is jazz called blues?

The name of this great American music probably originated with the 17th-century English expression “the blue devils,” for the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. Shortened over time to “the blues,” it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.

What is the difference between blues and jazz?

Blues and jazz Created at the end of the 19th century, blues music is a style of music that is heavily influence by African American history. The original blues music evolved and grew into jazz from the 1920s.

Why is blues music called the Blues?

Why is blues music called “the blues”? The name of this great American music probably originated with the 17th-century English expression “the blue devils,” for the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. Shortened over time to “the blues,” it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.

Where did jazz come from?

Jazz has been a key influence on hip-hop in particular. But where did it come from and why has it been so influential? The word “Jazz” first appeared in print in 1913. Jazz itself was inspired by slave songs and southern blues, first appearing as ragtime music in the 1890s.

What is jazz music called?

This style was called rhythm and blues, r’n’b, and was usually played on electric guitar and bass. The evolution of jazz Jazz is a fusion of African and European music and was developed in the USA in the early part of the 20th century. The style started out as Dixieland jazz in New Orleans in the early 1900s.

What was the first R&B song?

The Rise of R&B One of the genre’s earliest practitioners, bandleader and saxophonist Louis Jordan — who also co-composed the 1944 hit song “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” — used elements that would come to define R&B. These included the shuffle rhythm, boogie-woogie bass lines, and short horn patterns or riffs.

What was the number one R&B song in 1949?

In 1949, the term “Rhythm and Blues” (R&B) replaced the Billboard category Harlem Hit Parade. Also in that year, ” The Huckle-Buck “, recorded by band leader and saxophonist Paul Williams, was the number one R&B tune, remaining on top of the charts for nearly the entire year.

What is the origin of R&B music?

In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term “R&B” became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music.

What was the first R&B song to hit the top 10?

In 1954 the Chords ‘ ” Sh-Boom ” became the first hit to cross over from the R&B chart to hit the top 10 early in the year. Late in the year, and into 1955, ” Hearts of Stone ” by the Charms made the top 20.

What bands were R&B in the 1960s?

In the 1960s, several British rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Animals were referred to and promoted as being R&B bands; posters for the Who’s residency at the Marquee Club in 1964 contained the slogan, “Maximum R&B”. Their mix of rock and roll and R&B is now known as ” British rhythm and blues “.

Who created jazz?

In the late 1890s, syncopation joined with soulful melodies, upbeat dance tunes united with the sultry sound of brass instruments, and jazz began to emerge. Buddy Bolden, an African-American bandleader called “the first man of jazz” by historian Donald M Marquis, was at the forefront of the jazz movement.

Why is R&B important?

R&B is a diverse genre with roots in jazz, the blues, and gospel music. R&B helped spread African American culture and popularized racial integration on the airwaves and in white society during the 1960s.

What is blues and soul music?

Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music. Soul blues. Stylistic origins. Electric blues. soul.

What is soul blues?

Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music.

What is soul music?

The term soul music was coined in the late 1950s by record companies to describe a new kind of music that was influenced by R&B and gospel. Soul music is a combination of these two genres. It is characterized by emotional vocals, often with a call and response between the singer and the audience.

What does rhythm and blues mean?

By mid-decade rhythm and blues had come to mean Black popular music that was not overtly aimed at teenagers, since the music that was becoming known as rock and roll sometimes featured lyrics that concerned first love and parent-child conflict, as well as a less subtle approach to rhythm.

Where did Blues come from?

Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture.

Is blues a genre?

Folk music

Blues / Parent genre

What type of music is Blues?

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.

What influenced blues music?

It was influenced by work songs and field hollers, minstrel show music, ragtime, church music, and the folk and popular music of the white population. Blues derived from and was largely played by Southern Black men, most of whom came from the milieu of agricultural workers.

Is country blues the original blues music?

Many people believe that country blues represents the original blues music as it existed in the South before taking shape as popular music in 1912. However, rural blues recordings of the late 1920s capture professional musicians who heard more than ten years of published and recorded popular blues music.

Are blues and jazz related?

Blues and jazz are closely related; such seminal jazzmen as Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong employed blues elements in their music. Soul music and rhythm and blues also show obvious blues tonalities and forms. The blues have had their greatest influence on rock music.

What is the oldest blues song?

This allowed him to work as a teacher, while performing music during school vacations. Having always immersed himself in the African American music of his era, Handy eventually began writing songs describing the hardships he had experienced. In 1912 he published “Memphis Blues,” now considered the first blues song.

Who was the first blues singer?

Sylvester “Curly” Weaver

It’s impossible to trace a first blues singer, but the first recorded blues musician, within the genre which today is recognized as blues, was probably Sylvester “Curly” Weaver, when he recorded Guitar Blues and Guitar Rag in 1923.

Who were the first blues musicians?

The earliest blues musicians existed probably during the latter half of the 1800s, evidenced by the likes of W.C. Handy and Ma Rainey’s memories. Although these musicians never recorded and are remembered like unidentified, “missing” people, they still lay claim to being the first blues musicians.

Who is the oldest blues singer?

1. Bessie Smith (1894) Fittingly for our #1 pick of famous blues singers, Bessie Smith is one of the oldest artists on the list, born all the way back in 1894. Nicknamed the “Empress of the Blues”, she reached the peak of her success during the Jazz Age of the 1920s and 30s as one of the era’s most popular female blues singers.

Was Papa Charlie Jackson the first country blues singer?

Many have suggested that Papa Charlie Jackson was the first country blues singer to record, but this is not actually the case. Two artists were before him. On October 24, 1923, in Chicago, Charles Anderson recorded three sides including “Sing ‘Em Blues” which had the same tune as “Baby Seals Blues.”

Who was the first black male country blues musician to record?

The first Black male country blues musician to get the opportunity to record did so as a guitarist, not as a singer. Sylvester Weaver from Louisville, Kentucky went to OKeh’s New York studio, sometime in late October 1923, to back Sara Martin on a couple of songs.

Why jazz is better than blues?

Jazz music is often much more lively and upbeat than blues music. Jazz is often associated with swinging and swaying movements, lively atmospheres and even abstract, unpredictable noise. Blue however, is melancholic, sharp and slow – and the format of the music can often sound very similar from one song to the next.

What is jazz and blues?

The main focus of jazz music is the dynamics and improvisations of an ensemble, while blues music is usually centered on a single guitar player/vocalist, and the personal lyrical content of the song. Most jazz tunes are purely instrumental, while a blues song always contains lyrics.

Is jazz and blues the same?

There are always lyrics in Blues music while Jazz can have an instrumental voicing too. Another Difference between Jazz and Blues is that in Jazz music, the focus is on the whole group while in Blues, the focus is on guitarist or vocalist. Both of these genres originated from South America, although from different cities.

What are facts about jazz music?

Jazz music was formed in the late 19 th to the early 20 th century and it started as interpretations of European and American classical music that was mixed with slave and African folk songs with some influence from the West African culture. The genre’s style and composition have changed throughout the years because each performer has their own improvisation and personal interpretation and it is also one of the greatest appeals of jazz music.

Who is the father of all blues?

W.C. Handy

For his efforts in making Blues famous, W.C. Handy is known as the “Father of the Blues.”

Why is the blues so important?

The social significance of Blues music resides in the revolutionary element of African Americans creating their own aesthetics. Blues music represented the opposing voice that refused to be silenced by oppression and segregation. The Blues expressed this with unprecedented clarity, honesty and simplicity.

Why is the Blues so popular?

Whether you realize it or not, the blues is the foundation of nearly all the most popular styles of music listened to today. The blues isn’t just about the blues. Jazz, rock, country, soul, R&B, funk, and even ska all descended from, developed out of, and were influenced by the blues.

What is blues music?

The blues form is a cyclic musical form in which a repeating progression of chords mirrors the call and response scheme commonly found in African and African-American music. During the first decades of the 20th century blues music was not clearly defined in terms of a particular chord progression.

Is the Blues a good instrument to play?

Apart from the fact that the blues is interwoven into a lot of western music and really important to add to your guitar playing skills, it’s also incredibly fun to play and makes you look cool as a guitar player which is certainly not to be taken lightly. May the blues be with you!

How can you tell if music is blues?

The main features of blues include: specific chord progressions, a walking bass, call and response, dissonant harmonies, syncopation, melisma and flattened ‘blue’ notes. Blues is known for being microtonal, using pitches between the semitones defined by a piano keyboard.

Is blues a melody?

In a blues song with a sung text, the lyrics consist of a line that is repeated, then followed by a contrasting line (aab). The melody often follows this structure as well. Blues melodies often leave large gaps to allow for call-and-response between the melodic instrument and other instruments.

Is blues still popular?

While blues once topped the charts decades ago, it has been quietly living on in dignity out of the spotlight for a long time now. There are still plenty of exceptionally talented musicians that are keeping the craft going, and it has evolved over the decades…

What is blues and why is it so popular?

Blues is just the latest style that is connected to a specific time period in history that has managed to experience a resurgence. A few years ago, folk reemerged, and there were quite a few acts that popped up thanks to their appreciation of the legendary American music genre.

Is Blues still relevant in 2015?

The past few years have seen a number of exciting talents pop up who are injecting blues into their music, making the once-stale genre fresh and relevant for a new generation. 2015 was an especially great year for the updated, modern version of blues, or “nu-blues,” as many genres have been called in the past decade or so.

What types of music influenced blues music?

Blues musical styles, forms (12-bar blues), melodies, and the blues scale have influenced many other genres of music, such as rock and roll, jazz, and popular music. Prominent jazz, folk or rock performers, such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Bob Dylan have performed significant blues recordings.

What is British blues music?

British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s, and reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s.

Why is it called 12 bar blues?

The term “12-bar” refers to the number of measures, or musical bars, used to express the theme of a typical blues song. Nearly all blues music is played to a 4/4 time signature, which means that there are four beats in every measure or bar and each quarter note is equal to one beat.

How many beats in 12 bar blues?

Usually, a single bar is divided into four beats; so a twelve-bar Blues would be 12 x 4 = 48 beats. This twelve-bar structure is usually repeated three or four times, and each repeat is called a verse. You can think of verses as being like chapters in a book: each part of the same story, but different plots, characters and situations.

What is example of 12 bar blues?

Two examples of 12 bar blues using that chord sequence are – “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry and “Crossroads” by Robert Johnson below. In terms of labelling the sections, this can be done in a few ways. One way is to label the different chords – the tonic would be “A”, the subdominant would be “B” and the Dominant would be “C”.

Who invented 12 bar blues and when?

While in New York, Turner and Johnson had a session with the Vocalion record company, recording the 12-bar blues “Roll ‘Em Pete” on December 30, 1938. The song was an up-tempo boogie woogie which had become Johnson’s signature tune in the Kansas City clubs. Who invented the 12-bar blues?

What is the difference between rhythm and blues and blues?

What is the difference between blues music and rhythm and blues? Fast answer: R&B is usually upbeat, with funky rhythm and/or energetic. Blues is usually slower, has a more even rhythm and a bit more (if not a lot more) mournful. If you speed up a lot of Blues songs or add a funky drum part, you can get an R&B song.

What is the difference between R&B & blues?

One way to think of it is that the blues is essentially a vocal music, while R&B is more instrumental—but the real way to think of it is this: It’s a good song, or it’s not a good song.” With Bibb’s catholicity in mind, it’s worth watching YouTube clips of, say, Howlin’ Wolf and pondering just what he was playing: Blues?

How did the blues influence other music styles?

The blues have influenced many other musical styles. Blues and jazz are closely related; such seminal jazzmen as Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong employed blues elements in their music. Soul music and rhythm and blues also show obvious blues tonalities and forms. The blues have had their greatest influence on rock music.

Is jazz a part of blues music?

Most jazz tunes are purely instrumental, while a blues song always contains lyrics. Blues music was around before jazz, and can be considered an element of jazz music. However, jazz would not be considered a part of blues music per se. Early 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States.

Is blues music soulful?

No, blues and soul are not the same. Blues is a genre of music that originated in the African-American communities in the Deep South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is characterized by its use of the major pentatonic scale, blue notes, and a 12-bar blues chord progression.

Who grew up listening to blues & soul music?

African American singers and musicians who grew up listening to the electric blues by artists such as Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, and Elmore James, and soul singers such as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Otis Redding fused blues and soul music.

Why is blues music important?

It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres.

What songs are based on a blues song?

Blues forms are used in the theme to the televised Batman, teen idol Fabian Forte ‘s hit, “Turn Me Loose”, country music star Jimmie Rodgers ‘ music, and guitarist/vocalist Tracy Chapman ‘s hit “Give Me One Reason”. “Blues singing is about emotion.