The Origin of Blues

The Blues is a style of music that evolved from southern African-American songs usually marked by a syncopated 4/4 rhythm, flatted thirds and sevenths, and a 12-bar structure. Their music spoke of oppression, parting, and heartache. This state of depression or melancholy comes from a life of sorrow. These African-Americans lived a life of hard work and subjection. They sang about prejudice, poverty, women, and life. It seemed as if the could never ran out of things to sing about because their whole lives have been filled with oppression and wrong doing. They had enough music to last a lifetime. Blues was like a conversation between the bluesman and his instrument.

Dancing was another form of expressing ones blues. Dancing seemed like an appropriate way to feel the music and lighten spirits. The dancers surround the musicians and improvise just like the African culture. In the Northern Mississippi countryside, there were fife and drum bands. These Mississippi bands danced and paid homage to the earth. They also saluted the drums. In revolutionary times, Thomas Jefferson organized a fife band. It seems as if they could better express themselves through singing, dancing, and making music rather than just speaking. This music is a way of bringing them together. It kept them strong through the times of weakness.

The one string bass guitar that is used in Blues music is much like the West African stringed instruments. Much of the African American culture seems to have came from the African culture. The singing, the dancing, the rhythm, and the instruments seemed to have all came from the African culture. A lot of things are brought from Africa to America. The one-stringed guitar -like instrument was played with one hand. This style was probably created because of lack of resources needed to play music.

The Blues was first was first heard in work songs. While working the fields, the workers sang to keep them going. They would plow mule in the daytime and then play the guitar at night. Playing the guitar seemed like it was the best part of their days. After a hard days work of farming and building, music was where all the days troubles diminished. Bluesman appealed for female sympathy and a place to hang their hats. Their Blues often consisted of stories of women. They sang about how a woman would have a regular man, and when he's gone, her temporary man would move back in. That, along with railroad and boat stories, made up a lot of their tunes. They would use the tunes to assist them with their hard work on the railroad or fields.

It takes a man to have the blues to sing the blues. I think that this form of music influenced lots of types of music. This type of music was influenced by the African culture. The Bluesmen have been farming all their lives so they have a lifetime worth of melodies to sing. Music was their escape. Blues is the only music that they might have known.