Historical Folk Songs Turned into Blues Music
The folk music of non professionals who played and sang for their own pleasure came from Africa. The common rhythms, fiddlers and guitarists offered a rich and varied range of singing styles. Vocalists were very important because most of the black Americans had arrived in the United States as slaves and were very poor even after emancipation. Singing was one of the ways to express frustration, pain and loss of that era. Plus the joys of love found and a job well done. Rhythmic work songs kept groups of laborers moving in unison.
The group work songs gave blues one of its most common features, call and response. A lead vocalist would sing a line and the people around would reply, by echoing his words or singing a response phrase. In America, such songs were used to group labor on plantations, railroads, lumber gangs and sailing ships. In today's blues, this call and response sounds like a conversation between a singer and an instrument.
Pre War Blues
By 1920 most Americans were familiar with blues songs. They were performed by vaudeville stars, blackface minstrels, street musicians, ragtime orchestras, and by the new wave of jazz bands. Some bands were known for their sexy blues tempos and sultry blue moans. For example Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Marion Harris and Al Bernard. But few artists dedicated their craft just to blues.
Records are what made blues in the African American entertainment business. Then later blues was an influence on pop trends from R&B to hip-hop. Record companies discovered that records made specifically for ethnic communities would make them money. A black composer/publisher, Perry Bradford, realized African Americans would also be willing to buy records made specifically for them. In the early 1920's Bradford persuaded the Okeh company to record Mamie Smith with a white orchestra. The record did well enough that she was able to record future records with a group of African American accompanists and performed a Perry Bradform composition called "Crazy Blues." This became one of the biggest selling records of the year.
The Blues record boom was started.
Read More About: How Technology changed the Blues
