Chapter 5: The Blues
As African Americans migrated from the rural South to urban centers in the North during the Great Migration, the blues evolved along with them. The urban blues maintained many of the same characteristics as the rural blues, including the 12-bar structure, use of blue notes, and call and response, but it also adopted a more polished, professional sound suited to city venues and commercial recording. Urban blues was often performed by powerful female vocalists backed by a small jazz-influenced combo or solo piano. These groups typically included instruments such as trumpet, trombone, clarinet, piano, guitar, and bass, giving the music a fuller, more arranged sound.
Many of the most successful urban blues singers began their careers in vaudeville, where they performed blues songs as part of variety acts. As their popularity grew, several artists transitioned from the stage to the recording studio, helping to define the sound of the urban blues and expand its reach. These recordings were often issued as "race records," a term used by the music industry to describe music made by and marketed to African Americans. Major labels like OKeh, Vocalion, and Columbia had dedicated race record divisions, while a few smaller labels, such as Black Swan, were Black-owned and operated. The term "race records" was widely used and encompassed many genres beyond blues that were made and marketed to African Americans until it was eventually replaced by the designator "rhythm and blues" in 1949
