The most famous blues artists

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Blues performers almost never enjoyed the same popularity as the kings of pop music, and not only in our country, but also in the homeland of this style - in the USA. Complicated sound, minor melody and idiosyncratic vocals often repel the mass listener, accustomed to simpler rhythms.

Musicians who adapted this music of the black South and created more accessible derivatives of it (rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie and rock and roll) gained great fame. Many superstars (Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles and others) started their careers as blues performers and returned to their roots many times.

Blues is not just music, it's a style and lifestyle. He is alien to any narcissism and thoughtless optimism - traits inherent in pop music. The name of the style is derived from the phrase blue devils, which literally means "blue devils". It is these bad inhabitants of the underworld that torment the soul of a person who has everything wrong in this life. But the energy of the music demonstrates an unwillingness to submit to difficult circumstances and expresses full determination to fight them.

Folk music,stylistically formed during the 19th century, became known to the mass audience in the twenties of the next century. Huddy Ledbetter and Lemon Jefferson, the first mainstream blues artists, in a way broke the monolithic cultural picture of the Jazz Age and diluted the dominance of the big bands with a new sound. Mami Smith recorded Crazy Blues, which suddenly became very popular among whites and people of color.

The thirties and forties of the XX century became the era of boogie-woogie. This new direction was characterized by an increase in the role of percussion instruments, the use of electric guitars and organs, a faster tempo and increased vocal expressiveness. The overall harmony remains the same, but the sound is as close as possible to the tastes and preferences of the mass listener. Famous blues performers of the mid and late forties - Joe Turner, Jimmy Rushing, Robert Johnson - created the basis for what in a few years would be called rock and roll, with all the characteristic features of this style (a powerful rich sound created, as a rule, by four musicians, dance rhythm and extremely ex alted stage manner).

Early 40s-60s blues artists such as BB King, Sonny Boy Williamson, Ruth Brown, Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith and many others created masterpieces that enriched the treasury of world music, as well as works that are practically unknown modern listener. Only a few amateurs who know, appreciate and collect records enjoy this music.favorite artists.

Popularize the genre by many contemporary blues artists. Foreign musicians such as Eric Clapton and Chris Rea perform compositions and sometimes record joint albums with older classics who have made a huge contribution to the formation of the style.

Russian blues players ("Chizh and Co", "Road to the Mississippi", "League of Blues", etc.) went their own way. They create their own compositions, in which, in addition to the characteristic minor melody, ironic lyrics play an important role, expressing the same rebelliousness and dignity of a good person who feels bad…