NHD - Paper

Liam McShea


NHD Paper

Blues Music –

Blues Music and the Influence on Rock & Roll

Do you know where Rock & Roll Originated? If it weren’t for Blues music, Rock & Roll would not be what it is today. Blues was the first form of Rock & Roll, which originated from Africa hundreds of years ago. Blues wasn’t officially considered “Blues Music” until around 1911-1914 (Baker). In the early 1900s, Chicago was the main place of origin. The man who made a major contribution to Blues music was Alan Lomax. He mainstreamed blues music in the 1940s-1950s (Hardin). Blues music has been around for hundreds of years and has evolved from a form of music considered "black" music to one of the most influential forms of music of all time.

The Long Transformation and the Musicians and Inspirations that Followed

Blues music was being played by many different peoples. The earliest known of people that were playing Blues were Africans. The Africans most likely were influenced by the Griots that lived in the villages of Africa. Griots were West African praise singers who were the storytellers or scholars in African villages (Blues Roots). They would sing stories to the Villagers which would tell of life and even folklore. The Griots were soon sent overseas with the other African slaves, to America. The Europeans use of Africans as slaves brought whole new meaning to the music; now they would sing songs while working, songs about their lives as slaves (Giles). Blues was introduced to the South in the US by these African slaves in the 1700s in the form of spiritual hymns. The slaves were thought of as pagans by the Europeans, as such, the need to convert them to Christianity was the justification of slavery (Scaruffi). Hence, the spiritual hymn became the mainstay of music in slave life. The use of music was a form of freedom to the slaves; the freedom to sing their songs of their life. Blues was an important part of black life in the United States.

After the Civil War, slavery was abolished but now the black man still had to struggle; he gained freedom from slavery but became a victim of Jim Crow and racism (Rugel). The spiritual hymns became more of a testament to their lives transforming from farming work to laborer work. In the early 1900s music flourished in black communities. In 1912 WC Handy coined the term “blues” to describe this type of black music. A good explanation for the use of this term came from a blues artist by the name of Little Brother Montgomery. He said, “Blues comes from within, the music come from within a person, it don’t come out of a conservatory” (Giles). Basically, it describes how a person feels playing the music. In Chicago, Mississippi, and New York blues exploded within the black community. The Blues expanded its reach with most of the country in the 1930s-1940s (Scaruffi). And during World War II blues music was mainstreamed into the white community with the help of white and well-known black musicians (Giles). In the 1950s it transformed to into a new musical genre called Rock & Roll. Blues Rock, which it was considered, was especially big in Seattle, Washington (Baker).

(Below work is in progress)
. The slaves soon would sing of their hardships in America.

Slaves that were brought over form Africa to the Americas were one of the first inspirations to Blues. The slaves would sing songs of their hardships of being slaves and even their daily lives (Baker). The music from the slaves soon became songs in African-American communities. During the Civil War African-Americans made songs of the war and slavery during the time. Blues inspired many African-Americans to fight against slavery and segregation, yet without fighting (Baker). After the war, the African-Americans mostly sang about the hardships in their communities. The African-Americans faced a lot of hardships in the South that involved segregation (Scaruffi).

In the early 1900s Blues was becoming recognized by whites yet was not fairly accepted still. Blues was starting to become mainstreamed in the 1920s-1930s and was very well known in most of the US. Musicians like B.B King and Little Richard were becoming famous and spreading blues around the US (Giles). Elvis Presley soon took the Blues music and added a little twist to it. He inspired many more white musicians and now had the white community listening to Blues (Altschuler). Blues was now becoming even more accepted and even brought a new genre inspired by Blues, Rock & Roll.

Blues and Rock & Roll were the two main genres of music in the 1950s. Once the 1960s occurred, there came a new genre. It was a mixture of Blues and Rock & Roll called Blues Rock. It was extremely popular in the 1960s and early 1970s (Altschuler). So many musicians were playing Blues Rock. Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, and Carlos Santana are just a few of many artists that inspired Blues Rock and even now are legends of Blues Rock. Blues Rock was right for its time. It was a form of expressing beliefs and feelings but with that Rock & Roll twist (Larson).

The Long-Term Effect

Blues music changed over so many years and is one of the most influential genres of music ever. Blues music inspired so much and is still inspiring. It was an abolitionist movement, a cultural coalescence, and anti-war/pro-hippie association. So much has changed in the US and during those changes Blues followed. Blues had such an impact on the US and brought so many different ideas from it. It inspired so many, and as much hardships it went through, it still motivated many. The ideas of Blues are centuries old and are still growing. Blues changed society and will live on for a very long time.