There’s all kinds of well-liked music out there. There’s rock, and funk, hip-hop, and country, jazz, and folk, and… Plus plenty of music that doesn't have a label.
But when precisely does a type of music become “blues music”?
You might say… “Anyone knows blues music when they hear it.” But I bet if you asked 5 folks if a song was a genuine “blues song” you could get 5 different answers.
- Is it about a certain theme that the song is about?
- Is it about a certain scale structure or tonality?
- Is it about certain chords that can be called”blues chords“?
- Is it even any form of music theory reason at all… Or is it just the “feel” of the tune?
I doubt you can actually answer this question. The music called “blues” is usually different things to different people. What might be blues to one individual might be rock 'n roll to somebody else. If you're a very serious blues lover you'll have a fixed line between songs that YOU call the blues and other sorts of music.
And others could be very imprecise about what they call “blues” and not be particular about their definition.
The reality is, a blues song is usually played in a certain way. There are beats that are clearly associated with the blues. And there are particular chords that are linked with the blues. It doesn’t mean that these rhythms and these chords can not be utilized in other sorts of music. It’s just that barely will you hear a blues song that isn't a particular tonality or rhythm.
But if you want to play a slow blues a la B.B. King, then you'll probably be talking about certain chord types and tonality and maybe even explicit rhythms. If you inspect B.B. King songs closely you'll definitely see some patterns. There is not a vast number of types of songs that he plays. You will not catch him playing a polka for instance. Of course not. That's not a blues style song.
So…
I guess to be “blues” we ARE talking about certain structures of music. There’s shuffles and rhumbas and slow blues that are played in certain grooves. That is just the way that it is.
But that doesn't mean the blues doesn't develop.
Remember the famous Muddy Waters line… “The Blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.”
That just about sums it up. You can take a common blues chord progression and add something else to it to turn it into something else again. Isn’t that what Elvis Presley did? Isn’t that what many early rockers did? They took black rhythm and blues and turned into something slightly different.
Some would argue it was just white people making an attempt to play black music, and when the white people liked it, the record companies gave it a new name… So it would sell.
Well we may have that debate all day 24×7. Where did rock'n'roll come from? Who truly invented it? Is it truly just blues songs played “white”?
Naturally, not. There were masses of great black rock 'n roll artists as well. Chuck Berry, actually the King of Rock and Roll, would claim that rock'n'roll was far from only white. And who can argue that Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Bo Diddley weren't some of the greatest rock and rollers in history.
And you could simply disagree that they all came out of the Blues Style.
So , to those that say that rock 'n roll is just The Blues repackaged… Well they just might be right.
Rick Honeyboy Hart has played the guitar for many years and is a professional blues guitarist. He’s played in several bands and now helps others learn blues guitar chords on his guitar instruction web site.
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