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The development of urban and city blues also began in the 1920s with performers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. In the latter part of the decade, early forms of country music were pioneered by Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, Vernon Dalhart, and Charlie Poole. [63]
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.
Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues , but is performed in an urban style . It developed alongside the Great Migration of African Americans of the first half of the twentieth century.
Classic female blues was an early form of blues music, popular in the 1920s. An amalgam of traditional folk blues and urban theater music, the style is also known as vaudeville blues. Classic blues were performed by female singers accompanied by pianists or small jazz ensembles and were the first blues to be recorded.
Classic female urban or vaudeville blues singers were popular in the 1920s, among them Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Victoria Spivey. Mamie Smith, more a vaudeville performer than a blues artist, [36] was the first African-American to record a blues in 1920; her "Crazy Blues" sold over 75,000 copies in its first month. [37]
Blues musicians are musical artists who are primarily recognized as writing, performing, and recording blues music. [1] They come from different eras and include styles such as ragtime - vaudeville , Delta and country blues , and urban styles from Chicago and the West Coast . [ 2 ]
Although Delta blues certainly existed in some form or another at the turn of the twentieth century, it was first recorded in the late 1920s, when record companies realized the potential African-American market for "race records". The major labels produced the earliest recordings, consisting mostly of one person singing and playing an instrument.
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]