Chicago Blues

Emerging in the 1940s, Chicago blues became the prototypical and most influential form of Electric Blues on contemporary Blues music, Blues Rock and Rock in general. It is sometimes called electric Chicago blues to differentiate it from Acoustic Chicago Blues. Chicago blues is based on rural Delta Blues, transferring its songs and structures into a small band setup, amplifying the guitar, harp (harmonica) and bass, as well as adding drums and sometimes saxophones and horn sections. As opposed to other electric blues forms like early Electric Texas Blues, Chicago blues kept the rough and gritty edges of its ancestry through use of highly expressive vocals, slide guitar, great volume and (later on) distortion. It isn't restricted to but commonly uses a boogie-ing twelve-bar blues structure, making it the blueprint for Rock & Roll, blues rock and the entire British Blues movement and rock bands.