Blues is known as a secular music that originated in the rural South, by African Americans in the early 20th century. However, this music is rooted in African American slave songs such as spirituals, shouts, hollers and work songs. Blues was a form of artistic expression for many, but to many more it was an outlet. The music was used to convey feelings of oppression, depression, and total anguish of 400 years of slavery and tenant farming enforced upon our ancestors. Like its name many artists simply sang to express moments of feeling blue and sometimes to express their sexual desires.
The blues is characterized by a call-and-response pattern, with specific chord progression, the 12-bar (a style of music using a 12 bar chord progression using primary chords I, IV and V) sequence, lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. This genre of music is usually played by a solo musician on the saxophone, acoustic and electric guitar, piano or even a harmonica. Among the greats is B.B. King, who was able to influence a great deal of electric guitarists through his sophistication of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato. He was also one of the first crossover artists to make a huge impact in Rock music.