Whilst working in the fields of the Southern plantation owners, the black slaves developed a “call and response” way of singing to give rhythm to the repetitive tasks they were carrying out. It was these “field hollers” that served as the basis for all forms of Blues music that was to follow. It is the name given to both a musical form and a musical genre and the form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll is characterised by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common.
The origin of the term itself was most likely derived from mysticism involving blue indigo, which was used by many West African cultures in death and mourning ceremonies where all the mourner's garments would have been dyed blue to indicate suffering.
Once the Civil War ended, black men had one of two options to earn their leaving; the back-breaking manual field work or becoming a travelling minstrel. Many chose to become travelling minstrels, relying on their physical stamina and mental repertoire of many blue songs. Although the lyrics of a large number of blues songs are soulful and melancholic, the music as a whole is very emotive, powerful and full of rhythm, with the purpose being to celebrate the lives of black Americans. The lyrics of the songs reflect the daily themes of their lives such as drinking, murder, poverty, lost loves, hard labour and sex. Country blues popularity grew among Southern blacks during the teens and 1920s, with some of the more popular blues artists being recorded by Paramount, Aristocrat and other record labels in the late 1920s.
In the early 1940s, the blues folklorist, Alan Lomax, made field recordings of bluesmen in their surroundings which meant white people were exposed to the Blues as well as giving the artists exposure to national, if segregated, record labels. During the Great Depression blues music migrated towards Chicago and to compensate for the loud crowds and larger venues, blues artistes such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf switched to electric guitars and added drum sets to their bands, making the new electric Chicago blues much more powerful than its predecessor. From here, Blues then fell out of favour until the late 1950s when in 1958 The Kingston Trio recorded the number one hit “Tom Dooley” which gave birth to the folk revival, and from 1959-1966 the Newport Folk festival reintroduced folk and blues music to a mainstream white American audience.
By the beginning of the 1960s, genres influenced by African American music such as rock and roll and soul were part of mainstream popular music, with artists such as Jimi Hendrix , a blues rock performer, playing psychedelic rock and a pioneer in his use of distortion and feedback in his music. In the 1980s and 1990s, blues publications such as Living Blues and Blues Revue began to be distributed, major cities began forming blues societies, outdoor blues festivals became more common, and more nightclubs and venues for blues emerged, with the film The Blues Brothers in 1980 being perhaps the most visible example of the blues style of music in the late 20th century. Listen in to our recently-launched Blues show, hosted by Martin Clarke, every Wednesday from 7-10p.m.
