Blues

The blues originated with African-American communities, primarily in the Deep South of the United States, towards the end of the nineteenth century. It grew out of Spiritual, Work Song, shouts, chants and narrative ballads. It became associated with a form of music using a 12 bar chord progression (although it was always much more varied than just this form) and employing distinctive “blue notes”, slightly at odds with notation Western Classical Music. In the first half of the 20th century there was cross-fertilization with Jazz and Rhythm & Blues. Blues music continued to develop into a number of sub-genres, including Delta Blues, Piedmont Blues, Jump Blues and Chicago Blues. After World War II many artists, particularly in Chicago, moved to amplified Electric Blues, which was a major influence on Rock & Roll and later Blues Rock musicians and through them on Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music. Since then it has enjoyed a number of revivals, most recently in the 2000s, when it was picked up by bands of the Garage Rock Revival.