LECTURE 2 (Part 1): Origins of the Early Blues

Origins of the Early Blues

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   Lucky Peterson

The blues originate in America's rural south and date back to the 1890s. Today, there are several terms to refer to the music that was heard back then--country blues, down home blues, the Delta blues, the early blues, and a few others. For our purposes, we will refer to them simply as the early blues.

Under the definition of the term "folk that we already discussed," the early blues was performed by musicians who learned the music orally and aurally, and it reflects the beliefs, values and experiences of the people that sing them. The lyrics often reflect the uncertainty of life situations not always working out. It is also a style of music that musicians learned simply hanging out together in informal situations.

The Blues Message

Another notable cornerstone of the blues, which accounts for its ongoing popularity and dramatic influence on American popular music, is the message conveyed by the lyrics. The message is universal. Sadness, loss, tragedy, and so forth, affects everyone. The blues offers a degree of comfort to the listener, knowing that others have shared these feelings. Somehow, the blues lets the listener know that one is not alone when the world turns troubling. Listeners can also gain tips for handling such occurrences in life and for the emotions of sadness that result. After all, the early blues originate in the 1890s among southern, former black slaves who faced racism, lack of education, poverty, and joblessness. They lived what they sang. These blues pioneers knew the ups and downs of life and sometimes tried to find a silver lining somewhere along the way.

The blues are not entirely embraced by the black community, especially those with strong religious ties. Religious blacks sometimes referred to the music as the Devil's music, because of the associations of blues with drinking, gambling, womanizing, leaving home, and so forth, which are topics sometimes found in the lyrics.

The Blues Style

The style of the early blues during this time can be characterized as a former slave, single male vocalist accompanying himself on guitar. Most historians point to the Mississippi Delta region as the birthplace of the blues. Singers sang in the park, on street corners, benches, jailhouses, train stations, and at small gatherings or parties. From there the blues spread to the cities and influenced jazz. It further evolved into rhythm and blues, which incorporates saxophones, drums, electric guitars (B.B. King) and other instruments.

You will also have additional readings in Canvas that look more into the history of the blues as well as the form of the blues; that is, how the blues are structured internally. Once you understand the blues form, you will write your own blues stanza (3 lines), which observes many of the characteristics of the blues lyrical form.
 

Why the Blues Aren't Yellows:

Lastly, for trivia’s sake, why are the blues the blues and not the yellows? Yellow connotes the sun--bright, cheery, warm. The blues as a descriptive stylistic term connotes darkness, melancholy, introspection, night. Blues lyrics touch on things in life that go bad--losing a job, losing a girlfriend, someone dying, having no money, and so forth. Everyone on the planet experiences these emotions, which makes the blues in that sense universal. However, the blues are not fatalistic. In other words, though times are tough, blues lyrics often add a touch of hope and optimism, such as, "things will get better one day."

Reading

Gain some more background on the early blues by linking to the following article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues Links to an external site.

Only read through the following section headings in the article:

Lyrics
Origins
Urban Blues