BLUES IN AMERICA

Blues in America
Mandi Blanton
College of Western Idaho

BLUES IN AMERICA

The Blues, a genre considered by many to be the only true form of American
music, is a musical style which originated in what was once known as the deep south. The period
in which it originated - characterized by slavery, and built upon the backs of hard working black
men and women. These people, and the instruments in which they fashioned, were to set the
mood for this new genre of music. The hardships and conditions which they endured created the
inspiration and backbone for the new style in which they formed. Without the conditions
America imposed upon its black population, the Blues likely would not have been inspired, for
the discrimination imposed upon the slaves gave them their most important reason to sing and
compose.

The Blues first started to rise into the height of its popularity in the late 1800s and early
1900s, in a time when composers and musicians such as Edward H. Boss Crump, W.C.
Handy, Leadbelly, and Blind Lemon Jefferson began to come into the swing of everyday music.
It first began, however, with the slave trade. Slaves put to work out in the fields suffered long
and hard for very meager rations, were often whipped for even slightly disobeying, and very
commonly were prone to disease and starvation. It was a rough life, and time for entertainment
was little. This didnt stop them, however, from gambling, drinking, and of course, singing.
Southern slaves were said to have sang about everything from Trains, steamboats, steam
whistles, sledge hammers, fast women, mean bosses, stubborn mules and more all could
become subjects for their songs (W.C. Handy, 21). It was a commonly thought that anything

BLUES IN AMERICA

which a slave could extract a musical sound or rhythmical effect was fair game for composition.
Simple things a slave saw daily in the field, such as a bug (Boll Weevil, where have you been so
long..? You stole my cotton, now you want my corn.) or a steam ship travelling up the river (Oh,
the Kates up the river, Stack O Lees in the ben) (W.C. Handy, 21), or the kind of work he
performed, all gave musical inspiration to those condemned to slavery. Later, Blues music
would be stereotyped by a lone black musicians, travelling with merely their instrument on their
back and a hat full of change donations.

One of the biggest areas influenced by the blues during these times was Chicago, where
one of the largest populations of blacks lived. During this time, the Negro population of
Chicago doubled as a result of the demand for Southern labor to replace the influx of European
immigrants stemmed by World War 1 (Kenneth Allsop, 108). Black slaves were bought out to
work in factories and perform hard, manual labor. They were said to have arrived by the dozens
of over 2,000 a week, being sold or imported from other areas of the South. They soon
accounted for over twenty-one percent of Chicagos population, and with over 5,000 new
factories having sprung up since the early 1900s, there was no shortage of labor for them. After
long hard days of work, Negroes would congregate in bars around the area of Cottage Grove
Avenue and Halsted Street, where the blues were being sung and played with a volume and
variety to be found nowhere else in the United States, not even in the Mississippi Valley where
the blues were born (Kenneth Allsop, 108) Some of these bars not even being of access to

BLUES IN AMERICA

whites, unless admission was granted by a black friend who frequented the bar. Any white man
who may have entered would have seen some possibly familiar faces, as many of the Black
musicians were middle-aged and more, who worked for the Post Office or drove delivery vans
during the day, who after midnight played the blues on guitar or mouth organ.

In other areas outside of the big city, the first melodies which arose were often kept
among slave populations, sung out in the fields or from within the pitiful living quarters Blacks
were forced to inhabit. Official performances from within parlors were disallowed as those kinds
of places were reserved for dressed-up music. Slaves instead would often gather around the
small shacks they were offered by their masters and play for one another, popular songs
spreading by word of mouth and taught from one musician to another. It wasnt uncommon for
black slave men to go up to the windows of their sweethearts and to serenade them with music of
the blues genre. Some, if they eventually were lucky enough to be freed, would move to the
large cities and pursue their interest in music. Those who became popular would be employed
late nights in a place known as the New World, where their best patrons were those rouge-tinted
girls, wearing silk stocking and short skirts, bobbing their soft hair and smoking cigarettes in that
prim era, long before those styles had gained respectability (W.C. Handy, 21). Those who
became even further well known there may have been lucky enough to have met a few contacts
which led to jobs in the chaste great houses of the rich and well-to-do, and were asked to
arrange and play tunes that had never been written down and seldom sung outside the
environment of the oldest professionals. (W.C. Handy, 21)

BLUES IN AMERICA

The earliest melodies of Blues music often consisted of three lines, and were set to a
kind of earthborn music that was familiar to the Southland (W.C. Handy, 21), While the lyrics
often repeated themselves and usually told a short story or life event. A common misconception
or stereotype is that Blues songs were often sad, and dealt with the themes of hard work and
depression amongst slave populations. This, however, isnt completely true, as Blues songs
covered a variety of both negative and sometimes positive emotions, and a variety of different
themes. The most popular songs referencing things such as sex, drinking, railroads, jail, murder,
poverty, hard labor, and lost love. The backbone of the music itself is characterized by a specific
chord progression, specifically the 12-bar blues chord progression, being the most common. The
individual notes are sung, flattened, or bent to the pitch of a major scale. As the Jim Crowe laws
were introduced, the Blues shifted perspective slightly as changes began to take place throughout
the country, making cities like Chicago even larger hotspots for the new genre with the influx of
former black slaves moving into the city. Many of these new city workers wanted to forget the
lives they left behind in the fields, and this new form of Blues was to reflect the new, more urban
lifestyle many slaves now adopted.

One of the most influential Blues musicians from this time was W.C. Handy, also the
first to transcribe and publish sheet music for Blues music. In his early years, he was inspired by
both folk melodies and the reserved music of the white man, his first step into the musical world
being an old copy of Steiners musical instruction book First Lessons in Harmony which he

BLUES IN AMERICA

purchased back in Henderson for 50 cents. (W.C. Handy, 21) He first believed everything to
be found in books, but soon found that the Blues did not come from books. His first experience
with the genre being in the form of a stranger he witnessed playing the music in an old train
station while waiting for his ride. At the time, he confessed that it was the weirdest music he
had ever heard. His so called enlightenment came in Mississippi, where a local colored band
played after his dance orchestra. While they played, he described their performance as not
really annoying or unpleasant haunting is a better word. He at first wondered if anyone
besides the small town rounders and their running mates would go for it. But was surprised as
the tips started to fly in, silver dollars cascading around the outlandish, stomping feet. (W.C.
Handy, 21) After this, he came to the conclusion that Americans desire for movement and
rhythm did not have the earthy flavor the Blues offered. Quickly, he headed back and began to
orchestrate tunes for this new genre. Hoping to capture the rich traditions and inspirational
fertility with his music, and inspire hope and pleasure in the hearts of all who listened.

White men, one the hand, did not find as much pleasure in the Blues as Negroes did,
however, they later played a slight (if not underrated) role in bringing it through its second phase
of popularity. Some at the time even chose to embrace it. White classical composers, though,
frowned down on what was considered popular music such as the blues at that time. One
popular composer, Antonn Leopold Dvok, was upset when one of his pupils produced a very
creditable work, and a thoroughly American composition at that, could not get it published in

BLUES IN AMERICA

America but had to send it to Germany, where it was at once accepted. (Antonn Leopold
Dvok, 10) He claimed that American publishers were unwilling to take anything that wasnt
light and trashy music. He did however, praise Negro melodies to be more striking and
appealing over the other kinds of music of the time and in that regard, held some respect for the
genre. He was later inspired by the genre and founded upon the ideas in his compositions of
New World Symphony and Opus 96. (Daniel Mason, 96) Blues likely resonates with blacks
far more than it does whites as many white men did not experience the kinds of injustices blues
music was inspired by. But some felt sympathetic after hearing the Negros songs, one would
exclaim Behold, a vagabond with a corked face and a banjo sings a little song, strikes a wild
note, which sets the whole heart thrilling with happy pity! (Antonn Leopold Dvok, 10)

The blues are a plaint, a protest music that grew out of suffering, indignity, and rotten
living conditions. (Kenneth Allsop, 108) In conclusion, the Blues was a genre forged in pain,
suffering, sweat, and tears. For the average black slave, life in America was grueling, miserable,
and oftentimes cut short due to diseases and poor living conditions. This didnt stop an entire
race of people from holding hope, however, and through stains of dried blood and faces full of
tears, they found the inspiration to sing, forging the way for an entirely new genre of music. A
low and somberly sound which was built upon because of the injustices they suffered at the
hands of their white masters, whom upon their high society thrones, scoffed at the genre. Even
through the years, as the environment in which black slaves lived and worked in transitioned

BLUES IN AMERICA

from a rural to a more urban setting, the blues quickly changed and evolved to match the
conditions in which black men and women lived. Sadly, had they not been treated the way they
were, Black Slaves likely never would have been inspired to start up the Blues movement. In a
way, the Blues tells the story of their culture, and the kinds of social injustices they faced. To
listen to the old Blues is to listen to history in its most pure and uncensored form. For who can
disagree with story straight from the Black mans mouth?

BLUES IN AMERICA

References

Handy, W.C. How the Blues Came to Be. 1941. The Annals of America. Ed. Mortimer J.
Adler et al. Vol. 16. Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols.

Daniel Mason American Composers 1902. The Annals of America. Ed. Mortimer J. Adler et
al. Vol. 12. Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols

Antonn Dvok Music in America. 1895. The Annals of America. Ed. Mortimer J. Adler et
al. Vol. 12. Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols.

Langston Hughes Bop. 1961. The Annals of America. Ed. Mortimer J. Adler et al. Vol. 17.
Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols.

Kenneth Allsop Black, White, and the Blues 1960. The Annals of America. Ed. Mortimer J.
Adler et al. Vol. 17. Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols.

Aaron Copland The Composer in Industrial America 1952. The Annals of America. Ed.
Mortimer J. Adler et al. Vol. 17. Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols.

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Otis Ferguson Listening to Benny Goodman 1936. The Annals of America. Ed. Mortimer J.
Adler et al. Vol. 15. Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols.

Thomas Low Nichols Work and Play in America. 1874. The Annals of America. Ed.
Mortimer J. Adler et al. Vol. 9 Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols.

Deems Taylor Music in the United States. 1922. The Annals of America. Ed. Mortimer J.
Adler et al. Vol. 14. Chicago: Britannica, 1968. 22 vols.

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