| The blues is a vocal and instrumental | | | | pointed to several specific traits - |
| form of music based on the use of the | | | | such as the use of melisma and a wavy, |
| blue notes and a repetitive pattern that | | | | nasal intonation - that suggest a |
| typically follows a twelve-bar | | | | connection between the music of West and |
| structure. It evolved in the United | | | | Central Africa and blues. |
| States in the communities of former | | | | Ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik may have |
| African slaves, from spirituals, praise | | | | been the first to contend that certain |
| songs, field hollers, shouts, and | | | | elements of the blues have roots in the |
| chants. The use of blue notes and the | | | | Islamic music of West and Central |
| prominence of call-and-response patterns | | | | Africa. |
| in the music and lyrics are indicative | | | | Stringed instruments (which were favored |
| of the blues' West African pedigree. The | | | | by slaves from Muslim regions of |
| blues influenced later American and | | | | Africa...), were generally allowed |
| Western popular music, as it became part | | | | because slave owners considered them |
| of the genres of ragtime, jazz, | | | | akin to European instruments like the |
| bluegrass, rhythm and blues, rock and | | | | violin. So slaves who managed to cobble |
| roll, hip-hop, country music and pop | | | | together a banjo or other |
| songs. | | | | instrument...could play more widely in |
| Etymology | | | | public. This solo-oriented slave music |
| The phrase the blues is a reference to | | | | featured elements of an Arabic-Islamic |
| having a fit of the blue devils, meaning | | | | song style that had been imprinted by |
| 'down' spirits, depression and sadness. | | | | centuries of Islam's presence in West |
| An early reference to "the blues" can be | | | | Africa, says Gerhard Kubik. |
| found in George Colman's farce Blue | | | | Kubik also pointed out that the |
| devils, a farce in one act (1798).[1] | | | | Mississippi technique of playing the |
| Later during the 19th century, the | | | | guitar using a knife blade, recorded by |
| phrase was used as a euphemism for | | | | W.C. Handy in his autobiography, |
| delirium tremens and the police. | | | | corresponds to similar musical |
| Though usage of the phrase in African | | | | techniques in West and Central Africa |
| American music may be older, it has been | | | | cultures. The Diddley bow, a homemade |
| attested to since 1912 in Memphis, | | | | one-stringed instrument thought to be |
| Tennessee with W. C. Handy's "Memphis | | | | common throughout the American South in |
| Blues". In lyrics the phrase is often | | | | the early twentieth centry, is an |
| used to describe a depressed mood. | | | | African-derived instrument that likely |
| Main characteristics | | | | helped in the transferral of African |
| There are few characteristics common to | | | | performance techniques into the early |
| all blues, because the genre takes its | | | | blues instrumental vocabulary. |
| shape from the idiosyncrasies of | | | | Blues music later adopted elements from |
| individual performances. However, there | | | | the "Ethiopian airs", minstrel shows and |
| are some characteristics that were | | | | Negro spirituals, including instrumental |
| present long before the creation of the | | | | and harmonic accompaniment. The style |
| modern blues. | | | | also was closely related to ragtime, |
| An early form of blues-like music was a | | | | which developed at about the same time, |
| call-and-response shouts, which were a | | | | though the blues better preserved "the |
| "functional expression... style without | | | | original melodic patterns of African |
| accompaniment or harmony and unbounded | | | | music". |
| by the formality of any particular | | | | Blues songs from this period, such as |
| musical structure." A form of this | | | | Leadbelly's or Henry Thomas's |
| pre-blues was heard in slave field | | | | recordings, show many different |
| shouts and hollers, expanded into | | | | structures. The twelve-, eight-, or |
| "simple solo songs laden with emotional | | | | sixteen-bar structure based on tonic, |
| content". The blues, as it is now known, | | | | subdominant and dominant chords became |
| can be seen as a musical style based on | | | | the most common forms. What is now |
| both European harmonic structure and the | | | | recognizable as the standard 12-bar |
| West African call-and-response | | | | blues form is documented from oral |
| tradition, transformed into an interplay | | | | history and sheet music appearing in |
| of voice and guitar. | | | | African American communities throughout |
| Many blues elements, such as the | | | | the region along the lower Mississippi |
| call-and-response format and the use of | | | | River, in Memphis, Tennessee's Beale |
| blue notes, can be traced back to the | | | | Street, and by white bands in New |
| music of Africa. Sylviane Diouf has | | | | Orleans. |