The Nature and Evolution of the Blues - Term Paper Example

Introduction Blues is the name of a style of music that dates its roots to the tribal melodies of Africa. As seminally music of African Americans it emerged as a distinct style in the 19th century Deep South as a collation of African-American spirituals, gospels, and call and response melodies. The genre is characterized by twelve bar blues progressions that include specific ‘blues notes’ which are played flattened or bent in relation to the traditional major scale. The exact term blues is derived from ‘blue devils,’ a term from a late 18th century play which means sadness and melancholy. The blues is traditionally characterized as devil music and juxtaposed with the spiritual and gospel music that is primarily concerned with religious matters; however, its nature and influence extends well beyond any simple definition. This essay considers the nature and evolution of the blues genre through its emergence along with African Spirituals, to its presence incarnations within seminal rock and rock legends. Early History: Spirituals and the Blues In the original development, the Blues and African Spirituals were closely interrelated and share a common reason for emergence. It’s important to consider them in relation to each other as they eventually come to be defined in opposition to each other. When one hears the word spiritual, religion and faith come to mind. When one hears the word blues, naturally one thinks of depression and sadness. As words, spiritual and blues are almost entirely opposite from one another. However, when looked at in a musical standpoint the true definitions, going beyond just words, are actually more similar than they are different. The Spirituals and the Blues may even appear as two totally different genres of music, however these two types of music stem from the same experiences, feeling, and thoughts of the African American civilization. The Spirituals came before the Blue (Spirituals as pre-Civil War; Blues as post-Civil War), the Blues being a result of the Spirituals. Therefore it is true that both the style and sound of the Spirituals and the Blues came from West African Music (Clarke 1995). The way the music was formed was through the time of slavery. Slavery is the historical background of which the Spirituals and the Blues were created. The Spirituals and the Blues are a musical expression of slaves’ determinations and strengths of survival while living in cruel time of negation. These two genera’s of music are part of a huge piece of history, a portrayal of 300 years of suffering and anguish of the life of slaves. This history, this music, depicts a rich image of the powerful and influential people who helped build America (Clarke 1995). For one to sing and mean or listen and understand fully, the true meanings and feelings of the Blues, it is said that it is better to have experiences of the historical truth as background. The relationship of body and mind to the performance of the Blues is vital. One can only fully appreciate the effects of song when the song is felt. This feeling is the understanding and the appreciation of history; an understanding of a time when black people only had music as an expression of struggle, and the struggle was something extremely harsh and unfair. Because of the intellectual and political power of white people, there was nothing any black person could do to make the wrongs of racism disappear. The experience of black people as slaves was treacherous, they felt hopeless; the lyrics of the the Blues tells this. The songs tell about people in chains and bondage, laboring in fields for countless hours of the day. The lyrics were the only thing that held slaves together and gave them the eagerness to fight back and escape one day (Clarke 1995) . Whether it’s a Spiritual or a Blue, they are songs that are sung for extremely similar reasons. While Spirituals, characterized as the sacred type, are more religiously expressed, “Children, we all shall be free When the Lord shall appear We want no cowards in our band That will their colors fly We call for valiant-hearted men That are not afraid to die We see the pilgrim as he lies With glory in his soul To heav’n he lifts his longing eyes And bids this world adieu Give ease to the sick, give sight to the blind Enable the cripple to walk He’ll raise the dead from under the earth And give the permission to walk” The Blues, the genre that is often called “Devil’s Music,” tends to be more artistically expressed, “This little song that I'm singin' about People you know it's true If you're black and gotta work for a living This is what they will say to you They says if you was white, should be all right If you was brown, stick around But as you's black, m-mm brother, git back git back git back I was in a place one night They was all having fun They was all byin' beer and wine But they would not sell me none They said if you was white, should be all right If you was brown, stick around But if you black, m-mm brother, git back git back git back Me and a man was workin' side by side This is what it meant They was paying him a dollar an hour And they was paying me fifty cent They said if you was white, 't should be all right If you was brown, could stick around But as you black, m-mm boy, git back git back git back I went to an employment office Got a number 'n' I got in line They called everybody's number But they never did call mine They said if you was white, should be all right If you was brown, could stick around But as you black, m-mm brother, git back git back git back I hope when sweet victory With my plough and hoe Now I want you to tell me brother What you gonna do about the old Jim Crow? Now if you was white, should be all right If you was brown, could stick around But if you black, whoa brother, git back git back git back” (Cohn 1993). A work song is another type of genre used to talk about freedom and usually deceptively talks about fugitive escapes. These songs are often used to pass news; this shows the duality in African American oral tradition. These songs are poetic with the accompaniment of rhythmic sounds to add to the meaning. An example is the use of hammering in the background of a song. The blues is a genre to express the loss of a lover. A man/woman has come to the person’s crib and taken something that does not belong to them. People who sang the blues were often referred to as “lady” or “duke.” They were called the “Blues Queens.” This was a way of forcing the public to respect them (Clarke 1995). Looking past the religious, or non-religious, aspect of song, it comes down to the fact that Spirituals and Blues songs are an outlet. It is unity music that is overflowing with feelings and thoughts and has a combination of art, poetry, life, and experience all in one. They are songs that are sung to uphold the strengths of the black civilization. They are songs of optimism, and songs of misery. The Spirituals and the Blues were created in the harshest period of black history; it was the one thing that made black people feel like actual human beings and not property. For those few minutes, during song, everything felt okay. Singing let them keep hold of their fulfilling heritage while living in the middle of frustrating slavery. So whether it was the sorrow songs of the Blues, or the more joyous of the Spirituals, for blacks their life depended upon these songs. No matter which kind of song, the pleasure, the meaning, and the aura of song gives the same amazing feeling and effect as the other. Later Development The blues often allude to despair but they always seem to have a "bittersweet twist, a hope that things will get better" (O'Brien 1987 466). The term has come to be connected with an African American song form that blends spiritual and gospel music. Although historians have mixed ideas on the development of the blues, there can be no question that New Orleans is an essential aspect of its history. Perhaps the most obvious difference between the two forms of music is that jazz is predominantly instrumental while the blues are predominantly vocal. However, their intersection was a practical one, according to Shipton, as jazz musicians could offer their services to blues singers and singers could accompany jazz musicians. This may be because jazz and the blues represent different aspects of a culture that was growing and discovering itself at the same time. At a time when optimism among African Americans was diminishing due to southern white resistance and discrimination, a new pattern of music emerged, which revolved around the nationalistic sounds of soul" (Ward 1998 3). This soul was characterized by "musical and presentational devices drawn from a gospel tradition to which blacks had in intensely poprietorial relationship" (3). This soul is captured in many early blues recordings. Blues is also significant because within its roots we can see a parallel between the evolution of the African American struggle and "various transformations of Rhythm and Blues" (Ward 1998 2). After the Second World War, when African Americans were still excluded from participating in many activities, the blues emerged almost as a segregated form of music. The sounds were produced by African American musicians and were played on African American radio stations and concerts were attended by mainly African American audiences. Crossover was eminent, and the result of the influence the blues had on popular music can be seen and heard. One of the greatest influences on jazz and the blues is Louis Armstrong. Gennari points out that Armstrong's influence and "vanguard techniques are, for example, no less central to a definition of twentieth century modernism that Picasso's" (Gennari 1991 450). Both men, she notes viewed the creative act as a fusion of "spontaneity and calculation" (450). Armstrong is significant to the world of music because his recordings contained extended virtuoso solos. Armstrong grew up in Storyville, near the red-light district in New Orleans. When he was thirteen years old, he was arrested for shooting a gun on New Year's Eve. As a result, he was sent to reform school, where he learned to play the cornet (O'Brien 1987 227). Mississippi Delta Blues This type of blues probably developed in the rural area known as the Mississippi Delta and was then adapted to the style of popular vocalists such as Bessie Smith (a style known collectively as "Classic Blues") (Bransford 2004). As greater and greater numbers of blacks simply abandoned their futile efforts to survive in agriculture they also moved to the towns and cities of the Delta. Rural blues flourished in the more concentrated population centers of the Delta and, over the course of years, the urban blues styles were developing in Chicago and Memphis as blacks moved north. The Delta style featured "singing [that] is generally tense and vehement" and the guitar style, rather than being very sophisticated is, instead, "imaginative and complex, using all the resources of the instrument" (Herzhaft 87). The lyrics are of usually of the metaphorical type exemplified by well-known the use of sexual metaphors as in Charlie Patton's Pony Blues and numerous other examples. Some of the early players of the Mississippi Delta style blues include Robert Johnson. Although rarely recorded and photographed, a small legend has grown up around this blues artist with many individuals claiming he was the most talented of his generation. Other later and more recorded such artists include Willie Brown and Son House. Son House became a seminal blues artist of the 20th century (Bransford 2004). He pioneered a type of blues that combined spiritual and gospel music accompanied by repetitive rhythms and slide guitar. First in Mississippi and later in Tennessee, Son House grew up playing with musicians such as Robert Johnson, Willie Brown, and Charlie Patton. Even as Son House had been playing blues since the mid-1920s, his career and influence extended well into the late 20th century. Son House even played as late as 1970 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, shortly before he died in 1974. Son House innovative style had an indelible influence on blues artists Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, as they adopted his unique patterns. His influence extends even later; a recent White Stripes album included a cover of Son House’s song ‘Death Letter’. Further Evolution Perhaps most well-known now for his exaggerated statement that he had invented jazz in 1902, Jelly Roll Morton’s contribution to the medium is undeniable. He was a well-regarded pianist from the famed Storyville red-light district in New Orleans, but become an itinerant musician after his grandmother discovered where he had been working. While ‘Original Jelly Roll Blues’ wasn’t recorded until 1926 in Chicago, it’s believed to have been written as early as 1905. The song is an enjoyable melody that one can envision existing in early 20th century New Orleans. Today it stands as one of the first great early jazz compositions (Dicaire 1999). While not specifically ‘jazz’ in the strictest sense, W.C. Handy’s contribution to bringing to blues to mainstream acclaim is well-documented. For his role in recording and popularizing what had previously been regional southern music, Handy is now referred to as the ‘Father of the Blues’. While ‘Memphis Blues’ is not Handy’s most famous recording (that honor belongs to ‘St. Louis Blues’), it perhaps has the most interesting story. The song was originally titled ‘Mr. Crump’ to criticize a local politician, but was actually adopted by that same politician to promote his campaign. Three years later the song was given different lyrics, and its named was changed to ‘Memphis Blues’ (Dicaire 1999). From blues came rhythmic blues, a genre that showed how well African Americans could adapt. Marian Anderson is a prime example of a woman who was created by the African American culture then came to the metropolitan Opera later in her life an sang phenomenally in Four Season. Jazz took over for the blues to form a million-dollar industry. Singers such as Elvis Presley siphoned songs from blacks such as “Sittin on the Dock of the Bay.” Gospel, another genre used, is like the spiritual except in a gospel the author is known and it tends to be more upbeat. Spirituals are said to belong to the collective community because of the various different forms of each one. In the 1960s and 1970s blues continued its progression from its earliest roots into main stream rock and roll culture. In this era artists such as Eric Clapton and Jimmi Hendrix emerged who combined blues roots with mainstream rock and guitar to form innovative genres of rock. Clapton is even renowned for playing with seminal blues artists such as Freddie King and Albert King, both of whom had a seminal influence on the rock guitarist. In the 1980s the emergence of Van Halen, specifically guitarist Eddie Van Halen marked another major instance in which a rock guitarist with a blues foundation made a major contribution to the mainstream music climate (Barlow 1993). Conclusion While one can trace the roots of blues to the African call and response melodies, today the genre stands as a seminal one of American society. The initial emergence of the blues can be traced directly to the 19th century Deep South and followed through the 20th century. It includes such renowned artists as Robert Johnson, Son House, and Muddy Waters. The stylistic innovations developed by these artists and blues musicians like them extends well beyond the blues genre and has morphed into the styles of rhythm and blues and influenced such mainstream rock guitarists as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. In all the blues is an essential element of American culture, and has had an indelible influence on music of the 20th century. References Barlow, William (1993). African Americans in the Mass Media. Templeton. Bransford, Steve. (2004) "Blues in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley" Southern Spaces Clarke, Donald (1995). The Rise and Fall of Popular Music. St. Martin's Press. Cohn, Lawrence , ed (1993). Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians. Abbeville Dicaire, David (1999). Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century. McFarland. Gennari, David (1991). Panorama of American Popular Music. Prentice Hall. Ward, Jean (1998). America's Musical Landscape. Brown & Benchmark. Garofalo, Reebee (1997). Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA. Allyn & Bacon. Gioia, Ted. (1998) History of Jazz. Oxford University Press. Herzhaft, Gérard, Paul Harris and, Brigitte Debord (1997). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. O’Brien, Paul (1987). Blues fell this morning: Meaning in the blues. Cambridge University Press. Read More