"Classic" Blues

             The “Classic” blues style, exemplified by such artists as Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith, and Bessie Smith, was responsible for popularizing the blues and igniting a “blues craze” in the early 20th century. [1]   The name “classic” is something of a misnomer, as the style was more commercial and pop-oriented than the early, rural blues traditions of the Mississippi Delta, but the Classic blues craze was nonetheless instrumental in developing the blues style and bringing the blues out of the Delta and into the national spotlight.

             The musicians who performed classic blues songs were primarily vaudeville entertainers, like Ma Rainey, who had “discovered” the rural blues styles as they travelled the South with minstrel and theater shows and incorporated the blues into their act. As these shows became increasingly popular, record companies like Okeh, Victor and Paramount capitalized on the growing blues audience and created a market of “race” records, pressing recordings of these vaudeville entertainers singing blues songs. [2]

             Because these recordings were commercial in nature, the producers and recording artists borrowed from popular styles to appeal to a wider audience, and the styles of choice were vaudeville, cabaret, and early jazz. Victor Coelho points out that Classic blues recordings were “influenced as much by musical theater as country blues” and utilized jazz instrumentation, expanding the blues’ instrumental accompaniment beyond solo guitar and voice (an excellent example of the Classic blues style is Ma Rainey’s “Daddy Goodbye Blues,” which combines a Delta-inflected slide guitar with a popular boogie piano line). [3]

             Nonetheless, the Classic blues were still rooted in the Delta blues, drawing on similar lyrical themes, utilizing the standard 12-bar form, and displaying many of the influences of African music that characterized the blues. Additionally, the Classic blues genre was critical in spreading the blues across the southern United States and laying the foundations of urban blues and subsequent styles like rock, funk, and hip-hop.

     Bibliography

      [1]   Victor Coelho, Week 1 lecture 6: “Women and Classic Blues.” Crossroads: Musical and Cultural Perspectives on the Blues: course notes. Boston, Massachusetts: Boston University, accessed 22 June 2014, https://onlinecampus.bu.edu       [2]  Ibid.       <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[3]  Ibid; Ma Rainey, “Daddy Goodbye Blues” [sound recording], in “Week 1: Listening,” Crossroads: Musical and Cultural Perspectives on the Blues (online course), Boston University, https://onlinecampus.bu.edu (accessed June 22, 2014).