"Origins

The blues first emerged as a distinct type of music in the late-1800s.3 Spirituals, worksongs, seculars, field hollers and arhoolies all had some form of influence on the blues. Early blues were a curious amalgam of African cross- rhythms and vocal techniques, Anglo-American melodies and thematic material from fables and folktales, and tales of personal experience on plantations and prison farms. After the war, blacks were still slaves to King Cotton, and many found themselves struggling to support themselves working on plantations well into the mid-twentieth century, or struggling to support themselves as sharecroppers or tenant farmers.

The blues developed into a distinct form of folkmusic as a direct result of this. The emergence of the blues coincided with the worsening of the social and economic conditions for blacks in the South.


Griots And The Oral Tradition

The blues follow the west African tradition of the "griots." The griots were the libraries of their tribe. They held the history and the culture of their tribe, often in songs, and passed that knowledge on to their descendants.


The African-American songsters who synthesized the blues from earlier genres of black folk music were descendants of the griots, carrying forward the historical and cultural legacy of their people even while they were setting a new agenda for political discourse and action.


These new griots helped to continue the oral tradition. Through their songs, they often expressed discontent with their situation and their hope for change."

Rural Blues