Blues Summary

Blues Blues music emerged in the early twentieth century in the United States as one of the most distinctive and original of American musical forms. It is an African American creation and, like its di... Read more

In the following excerpt, the author analyzes the music sung by the African-American men hired to help at an archeological excavation in Mississippi. During May and June of 1901 and 1902 I was enga... Read more

In the following essay, Garon traces the use of drugs as related in the lyrics of blues songs. What follows is intended only as a short and incomplete survey of references to drugs that occur in t... Read more

In the following essay, Oliver argues that blues music is a legitimate extension of the African-American folk experience, but it is a limited genre as a source for a true ethnic literature. Lord, t... Read more

In the following essay, Dick links the influence of blues music on the works of Richard Wright with that of his contemporaries Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison. Of the major twentieth-century A... Read more

The hardships and upheavals of the African Americans were the basis of the creation of the blues. Since the beginning of the slave trade in America in 1619, blacks have been treated unjustly. O... Read more