Essay On Blues Music

Blues music as a genre and form was developed by African Americans in the south of the United States at the end of the 19th century. The genre has origins in many cultures such as in African music, African-American work songs and European-American folk music. Blues music incorporates field hollers, shouts, chants, etc. The blues form, found in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, and also the twelve-bar blues structure, which is the most common feature.

Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. In the beginning of the 20th century that the most common structure the AAB pattern, became the standard. Consisting of a line sung over the four first bars,

While several early attempts to assimilate rock and roll music into British culture failed, the jazz, skiffle style became the turning point, examples of skiffle can be seen in the songs of Lead Belly covered by Lonnie Donegan.2 With the decline of skiffle British rock and roll started to soar to the top of the charts. In different parts of the UK many musicians had experimented with combining American and British styles. In Liverpool this led to a movement known as Merseybeat, the ' 'beat

It has influenced the British Invasion through musical characteristics associated with blues such as the aforementioned 12 bar structure (AAB pattern), and also through styles that have developed from blues such as skiffle. Eventually rock and roll began to dominate which is clearly influenced by artists such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. The most surprising occurrence of the British Invasion though, is the re-exposure of blues in America. Middle class Americans were re-introduced to artists such as Muddy waters,