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The Bardic Origins of the Blues
| Article
# : |
13116 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1987 |
4,764 Words |
| Author
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Harriet J. Ottenheimer
Harriet Ottenheimer is professor of anthropology at Kansas
State University. She is the coauthor, with Pleasant Joseph,
of cousin Joe: Blues from New Orleans. |
Blues touch us in ways that few musical forms do. Americans of all colors and ages relate to the blues in a deeply personal way. A remarkable blend of African and European music and performance style, the blues is one of America's most important musical innovations. The blues draws from and contributes to a range of related musical styles and continues to have enormous impact on popular music in America and elsewhere. Yet while other styles may have similarly personal lyrics, blues singers bring the autobiographical nature of their music into particularly sharp focus.
The blues emerged out of an essentially African musical genre (with distant similarities to related European styles) and became acculturated in the United States. It thus forms a musical bridge that speaks both to and for whites as well as blacks. Understanding the roots of the blues, the contexts in which it developed, and the changing concerns of blues singers and their audiences will help us to better understand the roots and development of American culture.
The blues is more than the root of America's musical tree. Beginning with jazz in the earliest part of this century and continuing with gospel in the 1930s, rock and roll in the 1950s, and 1960s, soul in the 1960s, rock and disco in the 1970s, and heavy metal rock in the 1980s, nearly every American musical style has drawn heavily, if sometimes unconsciously, from the blues. How and where did this unique, yet basic, musical style come into existence? What, indeed, are its roots?
Early Blues Performers
One of the earliest
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