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Blues is a music genre [3] and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. [2] Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture.
Little is known about the exact origin of the music now known as the blues. [1] No specific year can be cited as its origin, largely because the style evolved over a long period but blues is inarguably a Black American art form as it is noted "it is impossible to say exactly how old blues is - certainly no older than the presence of Negroes in the United States.
Country blues ran parallel to urban blues, which was popular in cities. [2] Historian Elijah Wald notes many similarities between blues, bluegrass, and country & western styles with roots in the American south. [3] Record labels in the 1920s and 1930s carefully segregated musicians and defined styles for racially targeted audiences. [4]
Blues music was highly influential to popular music in the 1950s, having directly influenced rock & roll, and many blues and rhythm & blues artists found commercial success throughout the 1950s, such as Ray Charles. [7] The birth of soul music occurred during the 1950s, and the genre would come to dominate the US R&B charts by the early 1960s.
West Coast blues is a type of blues music influenced by jazz and jump blues, with strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos, which originated from Texas blues players who relocated to California in the 1940s. [1] West Coast blues also features smooth, honey-toned vocals, frequently crossing into rhythm and blues territory.
Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since the 1870s. [1] It was eventually extended from piano to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel.
The origins of Americana music can be traced back to the early 20th century, when rural American musicians began incorporating elements of folk, blues, and country music into their songs. [4] Americana musicians often played acoustic instruments such as the guitar , banjo , fiddle , and upright bass , and their songs typically told stories ...
Many Delta blues artists, such as Big Joe Williams, moved to Detroit and Chicago, creating a pop-influenced city blues style. This was displaced by the new Chicago blues sound in the early 1950s, pioneered by Delta bluesmen Muddy Waters , Howlin' Wolf , and Little Walter , that was harking back to a Delta-influenced sound, but with amplified ...