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 distant relative jazz, blues music is one of the great contributions to American popular culture. Blues music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including unique regional and stylistic variations, and it lends itselfwell to both individual and group performance. As a cultural expression, blues music is often thought of as being sad music, a form to express the hardships endured by African Americans. And, while it certainly can be that, the blues is also a way to deal with that hardship and celebrate good times as well as bad. Thus, in its long history throughout the twentieth century, blues music has found resonance with a wide variety of people. Although it is still largely an African American art form, the style has had a good number of white performers as well. The audience for blues has also been wide, indicating the essential truths that often lie at the heart of this musical form.
The origins of blues music are not easily traced due to its largely aural tradition, which often lacks written sources, and because there are no blues recordings prior to about 1920.
This page contains 201 words.
Blues article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 2,617 words
(approx. 9 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Blues Article
