Top Questions

What is the blues?

Where did the blues get its name?

How did the blues begin as a musical genre?

Why is the blues considered the “Devil’s music”?

How does blues music sound?

blues, 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 ...(100 of 1113 words)