BTEC Music Tech Award - The Blues

Component 1

'Is all music the same?'

The Blues

Blues | Definition, Artists, History, Characteristics, Types, Songs, & Factsblues, secular folk music created by African Americans in the early 20th century, originally in the South. The simple but expressive forms of the blues became by the 1960s one of the most important influences on the development of popular music—namely, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock, and country music—throughout the United States. Although instrumental accompaniment is almost universal in the blues, the blues is essentially a vocal form. Blues songs are lyrical rather than narrative; blues singers are expressing feelings rather than telling stories. The emotion expressed is generally one of sadness or melancholy, often due to problems of love

Artists: BB King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Bessie Smith... (shown below left to right)

Basic Stylistic Features

Time signature of 4/4

2. 12 bar Blues chord progression

3. uses three four-bar phrases

...lyrics have a three-line verse structure where the second line repeats the first, for example A A B.

4. Use of the Blues Scale

5. Call and Response

6. Originated in the Deep South of the US around the 1860s

...by African-Americans from roots in African-American work songs and spirituals.

More Reading/Listening Links

All About Blues Music | Life is too short for boring musicAll About Blues Music is Your Online Blues Loving Community. If You Love Blues Music, This Is The Place For You. All About Blues Music Blues Music is something that can touch the soul of a person, as it always makes an emotional connection. When hearing the Blues a person will be soothed, excited, aroused

BB King (YouTube)

John Lee Hooker (YouTube)

Bessie Smith (YouTube)

List of Videos and Songs used in Class...

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