Welcome back fellow bloggers, heres my second post!

We began to cover the more of the African American influence on music during the early 1900’s and multiple different genres and artists that made music what it is today. We started with the blues. The blues was an is considered African American Folk music. This began in the early 1900’s but started to be recored around the 1920’s. Blues is a major part of Jazz, the foundation for Rock ‘n’ Roll and black gospel. Lyrics included  A A B format, rhythm and strophic. Much of the song topics of early blues is about love, and misfortune. The first popular blues is “classic blues” from the 1920’s. It was recored in the north by Jazz and theater performers. It has been modified by the vernacular blues style. Many groups included female singers and Jazz bands. One example is St. Louis Blues composed by W.C. Handy, artist was Bessie Smith and playing the trumpet was Louis Armstrong. This song came out in 1925. The next genre developed was “Country Blues”. Male singers and guitar are common components to country blues. One of the best known country blues singers is Robert Johnson. His hit song was “Cross road blues” in 1936. This was recorded in the south. Some say it was rediscovered in the 60’s and was a major influence to Rock. Early “R&B” began to emerge in 1945. The term R&B stands for “Race Records” and was invented in the 1920’s-40’s by a man named Ralph Peer. 1949- today R&B stands for rhythm and blues or “race & black” the term coined by Jerry Wexler from Atlantic Records, and used by there Billboard for their chart. The next genre is “Jump Blues” and the main name you need to know is Louis Jordan. He is made a song in 1946 called Choo Choo Ch-Boogie which became a huge hit. This was post war, recession time in America and many people needed a more positive outlook or sound. Urban blues was covered as well and artists such as T-Bone Walker and Muddy Waters immediately come to mind. This genre is a continuation of country blues, it is guitar based and the electric guitar began to emerge into popularity in large, noisy clubs. T- Bone Walker originated the electric blues sound. Gospel music or “the good news”. This genre is African American religious music. A lot of people began to sing during church services. This genre emerged in the 1920’s-30’s and was a combination of the blues but with spiritual/gospel hymns. Georgia Tom or Thomas Dorsey bounces between blues and church music and became a popular name. In the 40’s gospel took a turn and we began to see gospel quartets, by the 50’s there were gospel soloists. Mahalia Jackson is a famous gospel singer and yes she is a women! She is famous for her “Move On Up a Little Higher” in 1948. Mainstream blues is another type of blues, which relates to classic blues in a way. Popular artist Charles Brown and his hit song Driftin’ Blues 1950 had a smoother sound and fewer country illusions.