Introduction
Blues music was created in the 1860s, originating in Mississippi. It had three major subgenres; folk, classical, and urban. Blues as a whole was inspired by work song/field hollers, minstrel show songs, and negro spirituals.
Artists
Ray Charles
Ray Charles is an infamous artist who dabbled in multiple genres but did Urban blues justice with songs like “Hit the Road Jack”, and albums like “The Genius Sings the Blues”. This genre of music usually has the singer using an instrument along with a band playing with them.
Muddy Water
Muddy Waters was a folk blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the “father of modern Chicago blues”.
Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton was apart of the classical blues scene which was dominated by women that were often accompanied by a band. A lot of her fame came after her stardom being that the blues seen as a whole was overlooked, especially the subgenre that had nothing but women in it. Many black influencers including Thornton had their work ripped off by their white counterparts. The most famously stolen Thornton song was “Hound Dog”, being swindled by small artists to big artists like “Elvis Presley”.
Conclusion
While in the beginning, blues was looked down on and often overlooked, people were able to shed like on the music genre, creating sub genres within it to appeal to different arrays of people.
