Historical+Events

====This powerful genre of music emerged in the late 1800’s after the American Civil War. This coincided with the social and economic conditions worsening for the Black Americans in the Deep South. Blues music can be traced back to African music. The blues follow traditions of the West African tribes who orally passed on stories and songs through generations with singing; they used bent pitches along with call and response techniques. The African-American slaves, who first sang the blues, were cultural descendants of these tribes. The Spirituals also influenced the development of the blues. Their songs, tell stories of death, suffering and the hopefulness of a better world; these stories added depressive lyrics to the blues. In this way the African-Americans could openly express their unhappiness and discontent while maintaining hope in the face of suffering. ====

[[image:dockery_farm.png align="right"]]
====In ** 1895 ** the Dockery Plantation was established. This is were cotton was grown, many blacks worked here and it was a hard job. They often had guitars and used them to entertain their co-workers and family.====

====** 1903 **, a piece of writing by a musical scholar called W.C. Handy was written and is widely regarded as the first documentation of the blues. He described what he saw as "a lean, loose jointed negro... playing the weirdest music I'd ever heard."====


 * 1912 - ** The first publication of blues sheet music is Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" followed closely by W.C.Handy's "the Memphsis Blues"


 * 1910 - 1915 ** ﻿The Blues "Craze" Starts.

In ** 1920 ** one of the first blues songs ever recorded by Mamie Smith called "Crazy
====Blues", was the first recording of an African American singing. The record sold a remarkable amount which surprised record companies, this helped blues grow as record companies were now looking for new blues artists to sign.====

** 1924 ** - Rhapsody in Blue, the first blues piece with the blues scale was written for orchestras.
====In ** 1929 ** the great depression started with the Wall Street crash, which had a great effect on the emotions of people, in turn developing and making blues more easy to relate to hence it becoming more 'mainstream' or 'popular'.====

Look how much work we did ^^^^^^
TEST QUESTIONS:

1. What significant event did the blues emerge after? 2. What are two characteristics of the blues that were derived from African American music? 3. In what decade did the Blues "craze" start? 4. What effect did the great depression have on the Blues? 5. What is W.C.Handy profession and how is it significant? 6. Why is Mamie Smith significant to the development of the blues? 7. When was the first song recorded that had electric guitar in it? 8. What was the first blues piece for orchestras called?