How the Blues Killed the Blues
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, the blues played a pivotal part in the expression of African Americans’ suffering. Coming off of the emergence of ragtime in the 1920’s, which reflected the creative and material abundance of the Roaring 20’s, blues used ragtime techniques and combined them with swing to express a different emotion: “The Blues.” […]
The Early Women of the Blues
/*! elementor – v3.7.7 – 20-09-2022 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=”.svg”]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block} /*! elementor – v3.7.7 – 20-09-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} The Early Women of The Blues Introduction The early women of the blues such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Mamie Smith, shaped the style known today as blues. […]
“Satin Doll” and “Gone With What Wind”: A Closer Look at the Songs
/*! elementor – v3.7.7 – 20-09-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Who are the Musicians? Duke Ellington The Big Band Era was filled with many great composers. One of the greatest, arguable being, Duke Ellington. His upbringing took place in Washington D.C. He had a comfortable childhood, living in a nice house […]
The Urbanization of Blues
/*! elementor – v3.9.0 – 06-12-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Introduction to Urban Blues The Great Migration is one of the biggest cultural movements in history. African Americans migrated to the south to the north in large numbers between 1916 and 1970s. Big waves of African Americans migrated due to the […]
Mamie Smith: The Queen of Blues
Mamie Smith: The Queen of Blues Introduction In the 1860s, a new sound emerged. Evolving from Black work songs, blues has its roots in secular folk music. In 1903, W.C. Handy, who dubbed himself as the “Father of the Blues”, said that this particular style of music was born from a revelation he had while […]
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith is one of the founding artists of blues and has had a tremendous and long-lasting effect on the genre, earning her the title “The Empress of Blues”. Bessie Smith was one of six siblings, when she was young, she performed with her brother on the street in order to make money. Around 1912 […]
Bessie Smith: One Of The Most Famous Blues Singers
/*! elementor – v3.5.6 – 28-02-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Her Background Bessie Smith was an American Blues Singer widely known during the Jazz Age. The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. […]
Are White Blues Singers Appropriating Black Culture?
Are White Blues Singers Appropriating Black Culture? You probably recognize the man in the picture: singer Elvis Presley. He is sometimes referred to “the King of Rock and Roll,” and you have likely heard some of his songs. One of his most famous songs is “Hound Dog.” There is a reason I’m bringing it up, […]
Ma Rainey and Blues
/*! elementor – v3.5.6 – 28-02-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} The Mother of Blues Ma Rainey is known as the “Mother of Blues.” She is known for her deep voice and discussions of being Black and Queer during the early twentieth century. /*! elementor – v3.5.6 – 28-02-2022 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image […]
The Blues Behind The Blues
By Nelly Ruach Quick Run Down The Blues, like many of the genres we have learned about in this class, have followed the pattern of music that stems from Negro spirituals. With many adaptations and subcategories that can stem from this style of music, it is important to note that its origins stem from the […]
The History of Blues: Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey was the first popular stage singer to include authentic blues into her songs. She was deemed the Mother of Blues. Ma Rainey was talented enough to perform during the first three decades of the 20th century and she was able to enjoy the mass popularity during the blues craze of the 1920s. Her […]
Black + Blues
/*! elementor – v3.6.4 – 13-04-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Blues music is a music genre that originated in the Deep South in the early 20th century by African Americans Following the civil war. Blues incorporates musical Elements developed from negro spirituals Like field hollers, ragtime, work, Songs, south, chants, and […]
Koko Taylor: Blues Journey
/*! elementor – v3.5.6 – 28-02-2022 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=”.svg”]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block} Daughter of a sharecropper, blues singer Koko Taylor began her career in blues clubs in Chicago. She later went on to perform almost 70 concerts a year in her late-career and became known as one of the Queens of Blues, winning her 29th […]
The Blues of a Black Woman: Bessie Smith
by: LaShaunda McWright “I ain’t good-lookin’, but I’m somebody’s angel child.” ~ Bessie Smith Early Years Known as “The Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith was born Elizabeth Smith, on April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga, TN although there are assumptions of her actual birth date being July 1892. By the time she was eight, she […]
Sippin’ on Blues: The Story of Sippie Wallace
Blues, a genre permeated with male authority, needed a bit of shaking up and the women of blues knew just how to do it. Female artists such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sippie Wallace, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith, and countless others – known or barely known, gave Blues music a fearless twist […]
The Blues ( By Tyria Gilmore)
Thesis I believe Bessie Smith was the most impactful blues artist because not only because of her gender but her music as well. Bessie Smith Had the most powerful voice in blues which shaped Blues because at first artist were singing about poverty but she caused a transition from that. That transition was positive in […]
Charley Patton: Father of Delta Blues
/*! elementor – v3.6.2 – 04-04-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Charley Patton Charley Patton was arguably the most important American musician of the 20th Century. His unique sound and style influenced an entire genre of music from the way he sang to the way he would play his guitar “all wild-like […]
Ma Rainey: Mother Of Blues
Born Gertrude Pridgett, Ma Rainey influenced the blues genre for a number of generations. From her abilities to put on an outstanding performance to her songs referencing sexuality, lesbianism and bisexuality, Ma Rainey, the gold neck woman of the blues, was not only a trailblazer for blues artist but social movements as well. Gertrude Pridgett […]
McKinley Morganfield, AKA the Blues Icon Muddy Waters
/*! elementor – v3.5.6 – 28-02-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} About the Life of McKinley Morganfield /*! elementor – v3.5.6 – 28-02-2022 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=”.svg”]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block} Biographical Information McKinley Morganfield, believed to have been born in April of 1913, spent his childhood on the Stovall plantation in Mississippi. Raised […]
Get it Back in Blues
Get it Back in Blues By: Alexia Khalil Women in Blues During the Blues era, women were at the forefront of the movement. Like others have done in previous genres, African American women in Blues chose to use this outlet as a source of expression. Women join together to celebrate freedom, independence, and sexual realities. […]
