submit urlsubmit rss feedadd directoryMobile Arts Directory

article

The blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the full twelve note chromatic scale plus the microtonal intervals and a characteristic eight and twelve-bar chord progression. The form evolved in the United States in the communities of former African slaves from spirituals, praise songs, field hollers, shouts, and chants. The use of blue notes and the prominence of call-and-response patterns in the music and lyrics are indicative of the blues' West African pedigree. The blues has been a major influence on later American and Western popular music, finding expression in ragtime, jazz, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, hip-hop, and country music, as well as conventional pop songs.

The phrase the blues is a synonym for having a fit of the blue devils, meaning down spirits, depression and sadness. An early reference to this can be found in George Colman's farce Blue devils, a farce in one act (1798). Later during the 19th century, the phrase was used as a euphemism for delirium tremens and the police. Though usage of the phrase in African American music may be older, it has been attested to since 1912 in Memphis, Tennessee with W. C. Handy's "Memphis Blues".The Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition, 1989) gives Handy as the earliest attestation of "Blues."Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2002, Routledge (UK), ISBN 0415291895 In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood.Tony Bolden, Afro-Blue: Improvisations in African American Poetry and Culture, 2004, University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0252028740

Characteristics


Origins

There are few characteristics common to all blues, because the genre takes its shape from the idiosyncracies of individual performances.Southern, pg. 333 However, some characteristics have been present since before the creation of the modern blues and are common to most styles of African American music. The earliest blues-like music was a "functional expression, rendered in a call-and-response style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure."Garofalo, pg. 44 This pre-blues music was adapted from slave field shouts and hollers, expanded into "simple solo songs laden with emotional content".Ferris, pg. 229 The blues, as it is now known, can be seen as a musical style based on both European harmonic structure and the West African call-and-response tradition, transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar.Morales, pg 276 Morales attributes this claim to John Storm Roberts in Black Music of Two Worlds, beginning his discussion with a quote from Roberts There does not seem to be the same African quality in blues forms as there clearly is in much Caribbean music.

More on [ Blues ]


directory of related categories

 
 
directory of related topics

Music :: Arts and Entertainment

 
Shoe_Suede_Blues RSS feed
Shoe Suede Blues - Twitter Search

blues suede shoe...
Daniel_Pulido (Daniel_Pulido) Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:43:27 -0000
blues suede shoe...

 
Subscribe to Shoe_Suede_Blues RSS feed

directory of related sites

Shoe Suede Blues - The official site with photos, biographies, booking and information.

Shoopies.Net - Official fansite with tour dates, band history, song list, reviews, photographs, merchandise, chat and transcripts, message board, and discussion list.

Shoe_Suede_Blues related videos
Hurriganes - Blue suede shoes
Next Video
Shoe_Suede_Blues related videos

 

HOMEADVERTISINGABOUT US

articlesartsbusinesscomputersgameshealthhospitalshomekids & teensnewsmobilephysiciansrecreationreferenceregionalscienceshoppingsocietysportsworld


Submit a Site About Become an Editor