Chapter 5: The Blues
Chapter 5 examines the development of the blues during the late 1800s and early 1900s and its connection to the social conditions faced by African Americans after the Civil War. Rural blues grew in the South through acoustic performances rooted in local traditions, while urban blues developed in northern cities during the Great Migration with larger ensembles and commercial recordings. The chapter also explains the musical structure of the blues and introduces performers who helped spread the genre to wider audiences.
Important Terms
Blues – An African American musical genre that developed after the Civil War and commonly focuses on hardship, love, loss, and everyday life.
Reconstruction – The period from 1865 to 1877 when the federal government attempted to rebuild the South after the Civil War and extend rights to formerly enslaved people.
Jim Crow Laws – State and local laws that enforced racial segregation and denied many rights to African Americans.
Sharecropping – A farming system in which tenants worked land owned by others in exchange for part of the crop, often leaving families trapped in debt.
Plessy v. Ferguson – The 1896 Supreme Court case that upheld racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal."
Great Migration – The movement of more than six million African Americans from the rural South to northern and western cities between about 1916 and 1970.
Rural Blues (Country Blues/Delta Blues) – An early style of blues performed primarily by solo musicians using acoustic instruments.
Urban Blues – A style of blues that developed in cities, using larger ensembles and more polished arrangements.
12-Bar Blues – A musical form consisting of twelve measures built around the I, IV, and V chords.
AAB Form – A lyrical pattern in which the first line is repeated before a concluding third line.
Blue Notes – Notes intentionally sung or played slightly lower than standard pitch to create the characteristic blues sound.
Pentatonic Scale – A five-note scale commonly found in many musical traditions.
Blues Scale – A variation of the minor pentatonic scale that adds a lowered fifth, called the blue note.
String Bending – A guitar technique that raises the pitch by pushing or pulling a string.
Bottleneck Slide – A guitar technique using a glass or metal slide to glide smoothly between notes.
Call-and-Response – A musical conversation in which one performer presents a phrase and another answers it.
Field Hollers – Solo vocal calls sung by workers in the fields that influenced later blues singing.
Work Songs – Songs sung during labor to coordinate work and maintain rhythm.
Spirituals – Religious songs created by African Americans that often expressed hope, faith, and freedom.
Shuffle Rhythm – A rhythmic pattern dividing each beat into a long note followed by a short note.
Race Records – A historical industry term for recordings marketed primarily to African American audiences.
Boogie Woogie – A piano style featuring a repeating left-hand bass pattern and energetic right-hand improvisation.
Ostinato – A short musical pattern repeated throughout a piece.
Walking Bass – A bass line that moves steadily through individual notes to create forward motion.
Broken Chords – Chords whose notes are played one at a time instead of simultaneously.
Rent Party – A social gathering where admission fees helped pay a tenant's rent, often featuring live music.
Arranged Blues – Blues-inspired compositions written for publication and commercial performance rather than traditional oral performance.
Folklorist (Ethnomusicologist) – A researcher who documents and studies traditional music and culture through field recordings and interviews.
Artists Discussed
Blind Lemon Jefferson – Early rural blues guitarist and singer whose recordings helped popularize country blues.
Robert Johnson – Delta blues guitarist and singer whose recordings became highly influential for later blues and rock musicians.
Memphis Minnie – Blues guitarist and singer known for her technical skill and long recording career.
Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) – Folk and blues musician known for his twelve-string guitar and traditional songs.
John Lomax – Folklorist who recorded Lead Belly and many other traditional musicians.
Alan Lomax – Ethnomusicologist who documented American folk and blues music.
Bessie Smith – Known as the "Empress of the Blues" and one of the leading urban blues singers.
Ma Rainey – Early blues singer who mentored Bessie Smith and became known as the "Mother of the Blues."
Mamie Smith – Singer whose recording of "Crazy Blues" helped establish the commercial market for blues recordings.
Perry Bradford – Songwriter who wrote "Crazy Blues."
Pinetop Smith – Pianist who helped popularize boogie woogie.
W.C. Handy – Composer known for arranging and publishing blues-inspired music for national audiences.
Songs Referenced
"West End Blues" – Louis Armstrong
"Sweet Home Chicago" – Robert Johnson
"Me and My Chauffeur Blues" – Memphis Minnie
"Looking the World Over" – Memphis Minnie
"Goodnight, Irene" – Lead Belly
"Cotton Fields" – Lead Belly
"Black Betty" – Lead Belly
"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" – Bessie Smith
"Backwater Blues" – Bessie Smith
"Crazy Blues" – Mamie Smith
"Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" – Pinetop Smith
"Memphis Blues" – W.C. Handy
"St. Louis Blues" – W.C. Handy
"Beale Street Blues" – W.C. Handy