Blues may be one of my most favorite genres of music of all time; I simply adore the historical significance of blues as a genre, the musical innovations it inspired and organized, as well as the continued presence it has in music today. When I think about the works of BB King, Albert King, Robert Johnson and these other seminal artists in the world of music, it becomes clear to me that blues is the template for the popular music that came after it, irrevocably changing the way American artists performed and composed music from then on.
Blues music has a long, storied history, stemming all the way back to 19th century black communities post-slavery. A mélange of different styles, from Negro spirituals to folk music and more, blues is a tremendously historic kind of music with deep roots in the African-American community who would popularize it and make it uniquely theirs. Blues, at its core, typically follows a 12-bar blues rhythm, following fairly specific patterns and chord progressions, but with room to experiment and improvise over it. Blues is not very musically complicated, but is much more heartfelt than that; with three chords and a story to tell, blues musicians transform the very basic structure of blues through improvisation, blue notes, offbeats and sheer gritty vocal character to showcase the hardships these singers are going through (often called “the blues” in lyrics).
Blues music is not always melancholy in tone, but many blues songs tell tales of infidelity, poverty, destitution, and depression, acting as an outlet for the singer to get these frustrations out in a musically appealing way. That is one big appeal for me in listening to blues music, as I feel the troubles of the singer through the music, relating to his problems and finding my own issues melting away through his or her expression of theirs. Blues, in its lack of dedication to form, was a pioneer in creating off-beat, unstructured music that conveyed a deeper emotional truth and honesty instead of making songs feel safe and boring. The off-kilter, trance-like rhythm of many blues songs is simply hypnotic, and the ambient environment of blues as a musical genre makes it an incredibly relaxing type of music to listen to.
One of my favorite blues artists is BB King; he is probably the most famous figure in blues music, and it is easy to see why given his immense talent and character. Some of my favorite blues songs by him include “Bad Luck,” “Every Day I Have the Blues,” “Woke Up This Morning,” and “3 o’Clock Blues,” which I can listen to no matter what kind of mood I am in. I love King’s slow tempos, matter-of-fact demeanor, and gruff, vibrato sound to King’s voice – the combination of his incredible vocal skills and his playfulness with his guitar leads to a versatile artist with a highly distinctive style that really defines blues as a genre for me.
The best part about blues, however, and BB King in particular, is that some of the greatest blues songs are completely improvised and developed on the spot, as King himself has done in the times I have seen him live or in recorded concerts. Blues itself is such a malleable art form, with so much room for improvement and experimentation, that each new playing of a song is practically a brand new composition unto itself. Songs can go anywhere from two minutes to ten and beyond – some of BB King’s later works (like Bitches’ Brew) have twenty-five minute compositions, the whole album coming together into a single work of jazz-blues brilliance.
Blues’ influence on other musical genres is something I also highly appreciate. The emergence and popularity of blues in the early 20th century clearly had its influences, especially in genres like jazz, R&B and rock ‘n roll music. Whenever I listen to any piece of popular music that has been made in the last 50-60 years, I can hear the influence of blues all over it. Blues, it seems, allowed music to expand beyond the restrictions of strict songwriting and staying on the beat, permitting greater artistic freedom for those who partook in it to craft compositions the likes of which had never been heard before. To that end, the importance of blues as a genre in the world of popular music cannot be overstated.
I cannot think of a musical genre I love more than the blues. Even with the other modern, popular music that is familiar to me and While many genres have come and gone after its inception, blues has remained a viable and fascinating force in popular music, and has influenced virtually every other kind of popular music that has come after it. Blues opened up the possibility for improvisation and syncopated rhythms in popular music, which lent a whole new vocabulary to artists and songwriters who wanted to branch out from the ordinary. This results in a musical genre that is willing to experiment and provides something new each time you listen to it, providing endless novelty to an art form that seems to be often about repetition.
Most importantly, though, I think blues taps into very common, universal human conditions that we are all familiar with. We all get ‘the blues’ at one time or another, and bad things happen to everybody. With the blues, though, everyone gets an outlet to give those frustrations a voice (whether directly through the artist, or indirectly by listening to blues artists), allowing everyone to come together and relate to each other. Blues is a relatively universal musical genre that can appeal to everyone who has ever had a bad day, or someone who left them for someone else, or even having their car break down a few miles from home. The innovations in style, theme and mood that blues brought have led to nearly everything we listen to today, and has lasted itself to this day.
References
Adelt, U. (2010). Blues Music in the Sixties: A Story in Black and White. Rutgers
Baker Jr, H. A. (2013). Blues, ideology, and Afro-American literature: A vernacular
theory. University of Chicago Press.
