Blues

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Audio: Blues

Blues is an African-American musical genre that emerged in the late 19th century in the US South. Marked by the 12-bar form, “blue” notes, and emotional content of longing and pain.

Blues is the soul of African-American culture — a freed slave's cry turned into music. At its core lies the 12-bar cycle, the blues scale with “blue notes” (flattened 3rd, 5th, and 7th degrees), and the call-and-response pattern inherited from African work songs.

Blues legends: Robert Johnson (1911–1938, the myth of his pact with the devil at the crossroads), B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker. Blues became the foundation of rock (the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton). In Ukraine the blues scene is represented by bands Mustang Blues Band, Chornyi Kvadrat, and the festivals Rock and Buh, Jazz & Blues Kyiv.

Cultural Versus

Blues

Sub-category:: blues-soul

Blues is an African-American musical genre that emerged in the late 19th century in the US South. Marked by the 12-bar form, “blue” notes, and emotional content of longing and pain.

36%similarity

Ars Nova

Sub-category:: classical

Ars nova (“the new art,” 14th-century France and Italy) is a revolution in rhythm and notation that gave music independence from words. The age of Guillaume de Machaut and Francesco Landini.