Admin Why did slaves sing the blues?
The Blues really started when African people were taken to America to work as slaves on plantation fields. The slaves would sing songs of their despair and suffering to make the time pass more quickly. The Blues music is about the black peoples struggle to survive and their efforts to win back their freedom.
Why was the blues sung?
Enslaved people would sing work songs while working the plantations and religious spirituals in church. Combined with the African rhythms, these musical styles were the foundation of blues. Work songs were sung rhythmically in time with the task being done.
What is the main purpose of someone performing blues music?
The social significance of Blues music resides in the revolutionary element of African Americans creating their own aesthetics. Blues music represented the opposing voice that refused to be silenced by oppression and segregation. The Blues expressed this with unprecedented clarity, honesty and simplicity.
What is unique about the blues?
The main features of blues include: specific chord progressions, a walking bass, call and response, dissonant harmonies, syncopation, melisma and flattened ‘blue’ notes. Blues is known for being microtonal, using pitches between the semitones defined by a piano keyboard.
Did the blues come from slavery?
The blues emerged from the oppressed, economically disadvantaged African-American communities in the rural southern states of America in the years following the American Civil War (1861–1865). Blues singers were descendants of slaves and elements of their music reach back to African origins.
Why do people like to listen to the Blues?
They all love the blues and soul music. The old adage “ A shared sorrow is half a sorrow ” may also explain why singing the blues is so good for us. In song after song, we discover that we’re not alone in our suffering. Everyone makes mistakes, fails or faces obstacles in life.
Where did the music of the Blues come from?
Blues developed in the southern United States after the American Civil War. It was influenced by work songs and field hollers, minstrel-show music, ragtime, church music, and some folk and popular music of whites. The blues is derived from and was largely played by southern Black men, most of who came from the surroundings of agricultural workers.
How was Elvis influenced by ” the Blues “?
How Elvis was influenced by “The Blues”. Blues music largely evolved after the Civil War – a combination of the music of slaves, railroad songs and gospel, backed by a dance beat. That beat became more noticeable with the advent of rhythm and blues.
How did the blues influence the African American culture?
African influences have been apparent in the blues tonality from its beginning; the call and response pattern of the repeated refrain; the falsetto break in the vocal style; and the imitation of vocals by instruments, especially the guitar and harmonica.