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Blues is a music genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century.

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• • • Blues is a and originated by African Americans in the of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in,,, and the of white Americans of European heritage. Blues incorporated,,,,, and rhymed simple narrative. The blues form, ubiquitous in, and, is characterized by the pattern, the and specific, of which the is the most common. (or 'worried notes'), usually thirds or fifths flattened in, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues or reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the. Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation.

Early consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans. Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the. The origins of the blues are also closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community, the. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the and, later, the development of. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves.

Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the. The first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues include, such as and, as well as urban blues styles such as and. Marked the transition from acoustic to and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called developed, which blended blues styles with.

Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Etymology [ ] The term blues may have come from 'blue devils', meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is in 's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). The phrase blue devils may also have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the 'intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal'. As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, and 'it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.' By the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, when 's ' became the first copyrighted blues composition.

In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a. Some sources state that the term blues is related to ', the flatted, often microtonal notes used in blues, but the Oxford English Dictionary claims that the term blues came first and led to the naming of 'blue notes'. American blues singer (1886–1939), the 'Mother of the Blues' The lyrics of early probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the so-called AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars.

Two of the first published blues songs, ' (1912) and ' (1914), were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. Wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times. The lines are often sung following a pattern closer to than to a melody. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative.

African-American singers voiced his or her 'personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times'. This melancholy has led to the suggestion of an origin for blues because of the reputation the had throughout plantations in the Americas for their melancholic music and outlook on life when they were enslaved.

The lyrics often relate troubles experienced within African American society. For instance 's 'Rising High Water Blues' (1927) tells of the: 'Backwater rising, Southern peoples can't make no time I said, backwater rising, Southern peoples can't make no time And I can't get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine.' Although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the lyrics could also be humorous and raunchy: 'Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, It may be sending you baby, but it's worrying the hell out of me.' From 's 'Rebecca', a compilation of blues celebrated both comedic lyrical content and a boisterous, performance style.

's classic 'Tight Like That' (1928) is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being 'tight' with someone coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. Blues songs with sexually explicit lyrics were known as. The lyrical content became slightly simpler in postwar blues, which tended to focus on relationship woes or sexual worries. Lyrical themes that frequently appeared in prewar blues, such as economic depression, farming, devils, gambling, magic, floods and drought, were less common in postwar blues. The writer Ed Morales claimed that played a part in early blues, citing 's ' as a 'thinly veiled reference to, the in charge of the crossroads'. However, the Christian influence was far more obvious. The repertoires of many seminal blues artists, such as and, included religious songs or spirituals.

And are examples of artists often categorized as blues musicians for their music, although their lyrics clearly belong to spirituals. Form [ ] The blues form is a in which a repeating mirrors the scheme commonly found in African and African-American music. During the first decades of the 20th century blues music was not clearly defined in terms of a particular chord progression. With the popularity of early performers, such as, use of the spread across the music industry during the 1920s and 30s. Other chord progressions, such as forms, are still considered blues; examples include ', ', and 's '. There are also, such as 's instrumental 'Sweet 16 Bars' and 's '.

Idiosyncratic numbers of bars are occasionally used, such as the 9-bar progression in ',. Chords played over a 12-bar scheme: Chords for a blues in C: I I or IV I I7 IV IV I I7 V V or IV I I or V C C or F C C7 F F C C7 G G or F C C or G The basic 12-bar lyric framework of a blues composition is reflected by a standard harmonic progression of 12 bars in a. The blues associated to a are typically a set of three different chords played over a 12-bar scheme.

They are labeled by referring to the of the progression. For instance, for a blues in the of C, C is the (I) and F is the (IV). The last chord is the (V), marking the transition to the beginning of the next progression. The lyrics generally end on the last beat of the tenth bar or the first beat of the 11th bar, and the final two bars are given to the instrumentalist as a break; the harmony of this two-bar break, the turnaround, can be extremely complex, sometimes consisting of single notes that defy analysis in terms of chords.

Much of the time, some or all of these chords are played in the (7th) form. The use of the harmonic seventh interval is characteristic of blues and is popularly called the 'blues seven'. Blues seven chords add to the harmonic chord a note with a frequency in a 7:4 ratio to the fundamental note. At a 7:4 ratio, it is not close to any interval on the conventional Western.

For convenience or by necessity it is often approximated by a interval or a. A minor; () In, blues is distinguished by the use of the, and of the associated. These specialized notes are called the. These scale tones may replace the natural scale tones, or they may be added to the scale, as in the case of the minor blues scale, in which the flattened third replaces the natural third, the flattened seventh replaces the natural seventh and the flattened fifth is added between the natural fourth and natural fifth. While the 12-bar harmonic progression had been intermittently used for centuries, the revolutionary aspect of blues was the frequent use of the flattened third, flattened seventh, and even flattened fifth in the melody, together with crushing—playing directly adjacent notes at the same time (i.e., minor second)—and sliding, similar to using. The blue notes allow for key moments of expression during the cadences, melodies, and embellishments of the blues.

Example of shuffle Problems playing these files? Blues or reinforce the trance-like rhythm and call-and-response, and they form a repetitive effect called a. Characteristic of the blues since its Afro-American origins, the shuffles played a central role in. The simplest shuffles, which were the clearest signature of the R&B wave that started in the mid-1940s, were a three-note on the bass strings of the guitar. When this riff was played over the bass and the drums, the groove 'feel' was created. Shuffle rhythm is often vocalized as ' dow, da dow, da dow, da' or ' dump, da dump, da dump, da': it consists of uneven, or 'swung', eighth notes.

On a guitar this may be played as a simple steady bass or it may add to that stepwise quarter note motion from the fifth to the sixth of the chord and back. Main article: The first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908: Antonio Maggio's 'I Got the Blues' is the first published song to use the word blues. 's ' followed in 1912; 's ' followed in the same year. The first recording by an African American singer was 's 1920 rendition of 's 'Crazy Blues'. But the origins of the blues were some decades earlier, probably around 1890.

This music is poorly documented, partly because of racial discrimination in U.S. Society, including academic circles, and partly because of the low rate of literacy among rural African Americans at the time. Reports of blues music in and the were written at the dawn of the 20th century.

Charles Peabody mentioned the appearance of blues music at, and Gate Thomas reported similar songs in southern Texas around 1901–1902. These observations coincide more or less with the recollections of, who said he first heard blues music in in 1902;, who remembered first hearing the blues in the same year in; and, who first heard the blues in, in 1903. The first extensive research in the field was performed by, who published an anthology of folk songs from, and, between 1905 and 1908.

The first noncommercial recordings of blues music, termed proto-blues by, were made by Odum for research purposes at the very beginning of the 20th century. They are now lost. Other recordings that are still available were made in 1924. Later, several recordings were made by, who became head of the of the. Gordon's successor at the library was. In the 1930s, Lomax and his son made a large number of non-commercial blues recordings that testify to the huge variety of proto-blues styles, such as and. A record of blues music as it existed before 1920 can also be found in the recordings of artists such as and.

All these sources show the existence of many different structures distinct from,,. (left) shaking hands with musician 'Uncle' Rich Brown in Sumterville, The social and economic reasons for the appearance of the blues are not fully known. The first appearance of the blues is usually dated after the, between 1870 and 1900, a period that coincides with post- and later, the establishment of as places where blacks went to listen to music, dance, or gamble after a hard day's work.

This period corresponds to the transition from slavery to sharecropping, small-scale agricultural production, and the expansion of railroads in the southern United States. Several scholars characterize the development of blues music in the early 1900s as a move from group performance to individualized performance. They argue that the development of the blues is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the enslaved people. According to Lawrence Levine, 'there was a direct relationship between the national ideological emphasis upon the individual, the popularity of Booker T. Washington's teachings, and the rise of the blues.' Levine stated that 'psychologically, socially, and economically, African-Americans were being acculturated in a way that would have been impossible during slavery, and it is hardly surprising that their secular music reflected this as much as their religious music did.' There are few characteristics common to all blues music, because the genre took its shape from the idiosyncrasies of individual performers.

However, there are some characteristics that were present long before the creation of the modern blues. Call-and-response shouts were an early form of blues-like music; they were a 'functional expression. Style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure'. A form of this pre-blues was heard in slave and, expanded into 'simple solo songs laden with emotional content'. Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States. Although blues (as it is now known) can be seen as a musical style based on both European and the African call-and-response tradition that transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar, the blues form itself bears no resemblance to the melodic styles of the West African, and the influences are faint and tenuous.

Additionally, there are theories that the four-beats-per-measure structure of the blues might have its origins in the Native American tradition of drumming. No specific African musical form can be identified as the single direct ancestor of the blues. However the call-and-response format can be traced back to the. That blue notes predate their use in blues and have an African origin is attested to by 'A Negro Love Song', by the English composer, from his African Suite for Piano, written in 1898, which contains and. The (a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of the in the early twentieth century) and the are African-derived instruments that may have helped in the transfer of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary.

The banjo seems to be directly imported from West African music. It is similar to the musical instrument that griots and other Africans such as the played (called or by African peoples such as the, and ). However, in the 1920s, when country blues began to be recorded, the use of the banjo in blues music was quite marginal and limited to individuals such as and later. Blues music also adopted elements from the 'Ethiopian airs', and, including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment.

The style also was closely related to, which developed at about the same time, though the blues better preserved 'the original melodic patterns of African music'. One of the originators of the Delta blues style, playing with a or a The musical forms and styles that are now considered the blues as well as modern arose in the same regions of the southern United States during the 19th century. Recorded blues and country music can be found as far back as the 1920s, when the record industry created the marketing categories ' and ' to sell music by blacks for blacks and by whites for whites, respectively. At the time, there was no clear musical division between 'blues' and 'country', except for the ethnicity of the performer, and even that was sometimes documented incorrectly by record companies.

Though musicologists can now attempt to define the blues narrowly in terms of certain chord structures and lyric forms thought to have originated in West Africa, audiences originally heard the music in a far more general way: it was simply the music of the rural south, notably the Mississippi Delta. Black and white musicians shared the same repertoire and thought of themselves as ' rather than blues musicians. The notion of blues as a separate genre arose during the black migration from the countryside to urban areas in the 1920s and the simultaneous development of the recording industry. Blues became a code word for a record designed to sell to black listeners. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of Afro-American community, the. The origins of spirituals go back much further than the blues, usually dating back to the middle of the 18th century, when the slaves were Christianized and began to sing and play Christian, in particular those of, which were very popular.

Before the blues gained its formal definition in terms of chord progressions, it was defined as the secular counterpart of spirituals. It was the low-down music played by rural blacks. Depending on the religious community a musician belonged to, it was more or less considered a sin to play this low-down music: blues was the devil's music.

Musicians were therefore segregated into two categories: gospel singers and blues singers, guitar preachers and songsters. However, when rural black music began to be recorded in the 1920s, both categories of musicians used similar techniques: call-and-response patterns, blue notes, and slide guitars. Gospel music was nevertheless using musical forms that were compatible with Christian hymns and therefore less marked by the blues form than its secular counterpart.

Prewar blues [ ] The American publishing industry produced a great deal of music. By 1912, the sheet music industry had published three popular blues-like compositions, precipitating the adoption of blues elements: 'Baby Seals' Blues', by 'Baby' F. Seals (arranged by ); 'Dallas Blues', by; and ',. Sheet music from ' (1914) Handy was a formally trained musician, composer and arranger who helped to popularize the blues by transcribing and orchestrating blues in an almost symphonic style, with bands and singers. He became a popular and prolific composer, and billed himself as the 'Father of the Blues'; however, his compositions can be described as a fusion of blues with ragtime and jazz, a merger facilitated using the Cuban rhythm that had long been a part of ragtime; Handy's signature work was the '. In the 1920s, the blues became a major element of African American and American popular music, reaching white audiences via Handy's arrangements and the classic female blues performers.

The blues evolved from informal performances in bars to entertainment in theaters. Blues performances were organized by the in such as the and such as the bars along in Memphis. Several record companies, such as the,, and, began to record African-American music. As the recording industry grew, country blues performers like,,,, and became more popular in the African American community.

Kentucky-born was in 1923 the first to record the style, in which a guitar is fretted with a knife blade or the sawed-off neck of a bottle. The slide guitar became an important part of the.

The first blues recordings from the 1920s are categorized as a traditional, rural country blues and a more polished city or urban blues. Country blues performers often improvised, either without accompaniment or with only a banjo or guitar. Regional styles of country blues varied widely in the early 20th century. The (Mississippi) Delta blues was a rootsy sparse style with passionate vocals accompanied by slide guitar.

Pftrack Free Download With Crack. The little-recorded combined elements of urban and rural blues. In addition to Robert Johnson, influential performers of this style included his predecessors and. Singers such as and performed in the southeastern 'delicate and lyrical' tradition, which used an elaborate ragtime-based guitar technique. Georgia also had an early slide tradition, with,, and as representatives of this style. The lively style, which developed in the 1920s and 1930s near, was influenced by such as the or the.

Performers such as,,,, and used a variety of unusual instruments such as,,. Memphis Minnie was famous for her guitar style. Pianist began his career in Memphis, but his distinct style was smoother and had some swing elements. Many blues musicians based in Memphis moved to Chicago in the late 1930s or early 1940s and became part of the urban blues movement. An early blues singer, known for her powerful voice Urban blues [ ] City or urban blues styles were more codified and elaborate, as a performer was no longer within their local, immediate community, and had to adapt to a larger, more varied audience's aesthetic. And blues singers were popular in the 1920s, among them 'the big three'—,, and —and., more a vaudeville performer than a blues artist, was the first African American to record a blues song in 1920; her second record, 'Crazy Blues', sold 75,000 copies in its first month., the 'Mother of Blues', and Bessie Smith each '[sang] around center tones, perhaps in order to project her voice more easily to the back of a room'.

Smith would 'sing a song in an unusual key, and her artistry in bending and stretching notes with her beautiful, powerful contralto to accommodate her own interpretation was unsurpassed'. In 1920 the vaudeville singer became the second black woman to record blues when she recorded 'The Jazz Me Blues'. These recordings were typically labeled ' to distinguish them from records sold to white audiences. Nonetheless, the recordings of some of the classic female blues singers were purchased by white buyers as well. These blueswomen's contributions to the genre included 'increased improvisation on melodic lines, unusual phrasing which altered the emphasis and impact of the lyrics, and vocal dramatics using shouts, groans, moans, and wails.

The blues women thus effected changes in other types of popular singing that had spin-offs in jazz,, of the 1930s and 1940s,,, and eventually.' An originator of the 'West Side sound' After World War II, new styles of became popular in cities such as,, and. Electric blues used, (gradually replaced by ),, and (or 'blues harp') played through a microphone and a or an. Chicago became a center for electric blues from 1948 on, when recorded his first success, 'I Can't Be Satisfied'. Is influenced to a large extent by, because many performers had migrated from the region.,, and were all born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago during the.

Their style is characterized by the use of electric guitar, sometimes slide guitar,, and a rhythm section of bass and drums. The saxophonist played in bands led by and by, but the was used as a backing instrument for rhythmic support more than as a lead instrument., and are well known harmonica (called ' by blues musicians) players of the early Chicago blues scene. Other harp players such as were also influential. Muddy Waters and Elmore James were known for their innovative use of slide electric guitar. Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters were known for their deep, 'gravelly' voices. The bassist and prolific songwriter and composer played a major role on the Chicago blues scene. He composed and wrote many songs of the period, such as ', ' (both penned for Muddy Waters) and, ' and ' for Howlin' Wolf.

Most artists of the Chicago blues style recorded for the Chicago-based and labels. Smaller blues labels of this era included and. During the early 1950s, the dominating Chicago labels were challenged by ' company in Memphis, which recorded and before he moved to Chicago in 1960. After Phillips discovered in 1954, the Sun label turned to the rapidly expanding white audience and started recording mostly. In the 1950s, blues had a huge influence on mainstream American. While popular musicians like and, both recording for Chess, were influenced by the Chicago blues, their enthusiastic playing styles departed from the melancholy aspects of blues. Chicago blues also influenced 's music, with using blues accents.

Zydeco musicians used electric solo guitar and arrangements of blues standards. In England, electric blues took root there during a much acclaimed Muddy Waters tour. Waters, unsuspecting of his audience's tendency towards, an acoustic, softer brand of blues, turned up his amp and started to play his Chicago brand of electric blues.

Although the audience was largely jolted by the performance, the performance influenced local musicians such as and to emulate this louder style, inspiring the of the and the. In the late 1950s, a new blues style emerged on Chicago's pioneered by, and on. The 'West Side sound' had strong rhythmic support from a rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums and as perfected by Guy,, and was dominated by amplified electric lead guitar. Expressive were a key feature of this music. Other blues artists, such as had influences not directly related to the Chicago style. John Lee Hooker's blues is more 'personal', based on Hooker's deep rough voice accompanied by a single electric guitar.

Though not directly influenced by boogie woogie, his 'groovy' style is sometimes called 'guitar boogie'. His first hit, ', reached number 1 on the R&B charts in 1949. By the late 1950s, the genre developed near, with performers such as,, and around the producer and the label. Strongly influenced by, Swamp blues has a slower pace and a simpler use of the harmonica than the Chicago blues style performers such as Little Walter or Muddy Waters. Songs from this genre include 'Scratch my Back', 'She's Tough' and '. 's recordings of would eventually bring him wider attention on both the blues and circuit, with McDowell's droning style influencing musicians. 1960s and 1970s [ ] By the beginning of the 1960s, genres influenced by such as and were part of mainstream popular music.

White performers such as had brought African-American music to new audiences, both within the U.S. However, the blues wave that brought artists such as Muddy Waters to the foreground had stopped. Bluesmen such as and started looking for new markets in Europe.

And the blues festivals he organized in Europe played a major role in propagating blues music abroad. In the UK, bands emulated U.S.

Blues legends, and UK blues rock-based bands had an influential role throughout the 1960s. Blues legend with his guitar, 'Lucille' Blues performers such as and continued to perform to enthusiastic audiences, inspiring new artists steeped in traditional blues, such as New York–born. Blended his blues style with rock elements and playing with younger white musicians, creating a musical style that can be heard on the 1971 album. 's singing and virtuoso guitar technique earned him the eponymous title 'king of the blues'. King introduced a sophisticated style of based on fluid and shimmering that influenced many later electric blues guitarists. In contrast to the Chicago style, King's band used strong brass support from a saxophone, trumpet, and trombone, instead of using slide guitar or harp. -born, like B.

King, also straddled the blues and R&B genres. During this period, and often played with rock and musicians ( and ) and had a major influence on those styles of music. Performing at Hyde Park, London, in June 2008 The music of the and in the U.S. As well festivals such as the brought traditional blues to a new audience, which helped to revive interest in prewar acoustic blues and performers such as,,, and. Many compilations of classic prewar blues were republished by the.

From the Chicago blues movement in the 1950s recorded several LPs using acoustic guitar, sometimes accompanied by on the acoustic bass or drums. His songs, originally distributed only in Europe, commented on political issues such as or issues, which was unusual for this period. His album Alabama Blues contained a song with the following lyric. Denise LaSalle Since the 1980s there has been a resurgence of interest in the blues among a certain part of the African-American population, particularly around and other regions. Often termed ' or ', the music at the heart of this movement was given new life by the unexpected success of two particular recordings on the Jackson-based label: 's Down Home Blues (1982) and 's The Blues is Alright (1984).

Contemporary African-American performers who work in this style of the blues include,,,,,, Mel Waiters,, Dr. 'Feelgood' Potts, O.B.

Jody,, and dozens of others. During the 1980s blues also continued in both traditional and new forms. In 1986 the album announced as a major blues artist.

The first recording was released in 1983, and the Texas-based guitarist exploded onto the international stage. 's popularity was revived with the album in 1989., known for his performances with and, made a comeback in the 1990s with his album, in which he played some standard blues numbers on acoustic guitar. However, beginning in the 1990s, and other technological advances and new marketing strategies including production increased costs, challenging the spontaneity and improvisation that are an important component of blues music. In the 1980s and 1990s, blues publications such as and were launched, major cities began forming blues societies, outdoor blues festivals became more common, and more and venues for blues emerged. In the 1990s, the largely ignored gained minor recognition in both blues and music circles with northern Mississippi artists and. Blues performers explored a range of musical genres, as can be seen, for example, from the broad array of nominees of the yearly, previously named W. Handy Awards or of the and.

The Billboard Blues Album chart provides an overview of current blues hits. Contemporary blues music is nurtured by several blues labels such as:,,, (),,, and (Artemis Records). Some labels are famous for rediscovering and remastering blues rarities, including, (heir of ), and (). From the late 2000s to the present day, has gained a cultural following, especially after the rise of the, when artists started creating channels, forums, and pages. Notable blues rock musicians of this period include,,,,,,,,,, (in collaboration with ) and. Artists still combine strong elements of blues in their music, especially,,, and the.

Musical impact [ ] Blues musical styles, forms (12-bar blues), melodies, and the blues scale have influenced many other genres of music, such as rock and roll, jazz, and popular music. Prominent jazz, folk or rock performers, such as,,, and have performed significant blues recordings. The blues scale is often used in like 's 'Blues in the Night', like 'Since I Fell for You' and 'Please Send Me Someone to Love', and even in orchestral works such as 's ' and 'Concerto in F'. Gershwin's second 'Prelude' for solo piano is an interesting example of a classical blues, maintaining the form with academic strictness. The blues scale is ubiquitous in modern popular music and informs many, especially the used in rock music (for example, in '). Blues forms are used in the theme to the televised, 's hit, 'Turn Me Loose', star ' music, and guitarist/vocalist 's hit 'Give Me One Reason'. Early country bluesmen such as,, played country and urban blues and had influences from spiritual singing.

Dorsey helped to popularize. Gospel music developed in the 1930s, with the.

In the 1950s, by, and used gospel and blues music elements. In the 1960s and 1970s, gospel and blues were merged in music. Music of the 1970s was influenced by soul; funk can be seen as an antecedent of hip-hop and contemporary R&B. Music can be traced back to and blues.

Musically, spirituals were a descendant of choral traditions, and in particular of 's, mixed with African rhythms and call-and-response forms. Spirituals or religious chants in the African-American community are much better documented than the 'low-down' blues. Spiritual singing developed because African-American communities could gather for mass or worship gatherings, which were called. Comentale has noted how the blues was often used as a medium for art or self-expression, stating: 'As heard from Delta shacks to Chicago tenements to Harlem cabarets, the blues proved—despite its pained origins—a remarkably flexible medium and a new arena for the shaping of identity and community.' Straddled the and genres. Ellington extensively used the blues form. Before, the boundaries between blues and were less clear.

Usually jazz had harmonic structures stemming from, whereas blues had blues forms such as the 12-bar blues. However, the jump blues of the 1940s mixed both styles. After WWII, blues had a substantial influence on jazz. Classics, such as 's 'Now's the Time', used the blues form with the pentatonic scale and blue notes. Bebop marked a major shift in the role of jazz, from a popular style of music for dancing, to a 'high-art', less-accessible, cerebral 'musician's music'. The audience for both blues and jazz split, and the border between blues and jazz became more defined.

The blues' 12-bar structure and the blues scale was a major influence on music. Rock and roll has been called 'blues with a '; called 'blues with a beat'. Rockabillies were also said to be 12-bar blues played with a beat.

', with its unmodified 12-bar structure (in both harmony and lyrics) and a melody centered on flatted third of the tonic (and flatted seventh of the subdominant), is a blues song transformed into a rock and roll song. 's style of rock and roll was heavily influenced by the blues and its derivative boogie woogie. His style of music was not exactly rockabilly but it has been often called real rock and roll (this is a label he shares with several African American rock and roll performers). Many early rock and roll songs are based on blues: ', ', ', ', ', and '. The early African American rock musicians retained the sexual themes and innuendos of blues music: 'Got a gal named Sue, knows just what to do' (', ) or 'See the girl with the red dress on, She can do the Birdland all night long' (', ).

The 12-bar blues structure can be found even in novelty pop songs, such as 's ' and 's '. Early was infused with the blues.,,, and have all described themselves as blues singers and their music has a blues feel that is different, at first glance at least, from the later country pop of artists like. Yet, if one looks back further, Arnold also started out singing bluesy songs like 'I'll Hold You in My Heart'. A lot of the 1970s-era 'outlaw' country music by and also borrowed from the blues.

When returned to country after the decline of 1950s style rock and roll, he sang his country with a blues feel and often included blues standards on his albums. In popular culture [ ]. The music of for the 1972 movie marked a revival of interest in acoustic blues. Like,,,,, rap,, and, blues has been accused of being the 's music' and of inciting violence and other poor behavior. In the early 20th century, the blues was considered disreputable, especially as white audiences began listening to the blues during the 1920s. In the early twentieth century, was the first to popularize blues-influenced music among non-black Americans. During the blues revival of the 1960s and '70s, acoustic blues artist and legendary Texas bluesman wrote and performed music that figured prominently in the popularly and critically acclaimed film (1972).

The film earned Mahal a nomination for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture and a nomination. Almost 30 years later, Mahal wrote blues for, and performed a banjo composition, claw-hammer style, in the 2001 movie release, which focused on the story of the preservation of the.

Perhaps the most visible example of the blues style of music in the late 20th century came in 1980, when and released the film. The film drew many of the biggest living influencers of the genre together, such as,,,, and.

The band formed also began a successful tour under the marquee. 1998 brought a sequel, that, while not holding as great a critical and financial success, featured a much larger number of blues artists, such as,,,,,,,, and. In 2003, made significant efforts to promote the blues to a larger audience. He asked several famous directors such as and to participate in a series of documentary films for called.

He also participated in the rendition of compilations of major blues artists in a series of high-quality CDs. Blues guitarist and vocalist performed his blues rendition of ' in 2006 to close out the final season of the television series.

See also [ ].