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The History of the BluesThe History of the Blues is one that can be coupled with the history of Jazz as both of these musical genres have deeply set roots in the songs of the west African slaves in the Southern states of America before the civil war. During the strenuous and back breaking work that these slaves had to do during all parts of the day they developed a way to supplement their work load through music and keeping a steady rhythm to help others to take their minds off of the work. This served as the basis for the blues and led to many future generations of musicians that played and sang in this genre. In this way, the history of blues music is one that is filled with the pain and frustration of these slaves and these emotions are the basis for the name of the genre. After the civil war the blues took on a modified sound but the plight of the African American was still realized because though they were no longer slaves the only work that was available to them was still very strenuous manual labor in addition to becoming a traveling musician. Many of the former slaves took on the role of becoming a traveling musician and played at any place that would accept them such as all night dances and fish frys just to name a few places.
The blues has traditionally been known to celebrate the lives of African Americans in a very powerful and thought provoking way and the blues traditionally incorporates what these men and women go through in their daily lives. Subjects such as sex, jail, poverty, love and hard labor are typical of blues songs and these songs embody the African American experience in America. One of the first blues songs ever written down was the Memphis Blues in 1909 written by W.C. Handy. Since this time the musical genre has grown to incorporate all races from a variety of backgrounds and has also been seen to incorporate all types of instruments in addition to the traditional acoustic guitar.
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