People's musical tastes have changed over time and amid different social conditions. That has been the case with blues music in Boston over the past half-century.
By Bhuchung D. Sonam
Since its heyday in the 1940s and '50s, blues music in Boston shifted from being a social expression of the working class to an entertainment art form.
"[Blues music] has moved from a working class tradition, from poor blacks in the 1930s, '40s and '50s to a nearly all white, college or yuppie audience," said Karen Nugent, vice-president of Boston Blues Society. "Few can relate to old stories of sharecropping, mules, and violence."
But it is not blues music that has failed to keep up with the times, but rather the musicians who nowadays are less successful in expressing public feelings and opinions.
"Blues is an old music," said Roger House, who studies blues history. "It used to express people's feelings and sentiments of working class people, of black working class people who were living a certain experience. Now the music is entertainment. It does not have any direct connection to the fans. Fans look at it as a historic building," said House, an assistant professor at Emerson College.
The blues emerged in the 1890s as a musical style responding to the hardships endured by generations of black people. The songs served as a means of communication among plantation workers, and were used by slaves to keep time with work.
In the early 20th century, blues music became widespread in Boston as more blacks moved north and settled in the region. The music was then concentrated mainly around the South Shore, Roxbury and downtown where a large portion of the black population lived.
In the 1940s, '50s and '60s, white audiences discovered blues and followed it. Now the majority of both the audience and the blues musicians in Boston are white. They gather in cafés and lounges where blues jams take place. For Jane Stein from Weymouth, who is white, "it is pure entertainment." She danced, drank beer and laughed aloud when the band played music by bluesmen such as Muddy Waters, BB King and Bo Diddley, whose songs spoke of the plight and suffering of black people.
"I feel it's totally separated from its root, at least here in Boston," said Ryan Fardy, 23, a blues musician who is currently working on a pop rock album. "Blues was born out of slavery, racism and poverty. These are issues that very few in Boston have honestly dealt with," he noted.
This may be true, perhaps, as many people have said that blues music touches their soul and speaks their thoughts. But the number of people who listen to blues, however dedicated, is limited. This may be due, House said, to the fact that blues music is no longer an expression of social experiences. "It's a superficial form of music now... only entertainment. It lost its vitality, some of its meaning," he said.
Blues-influenced forms of popular entertainment have cut into the blues audience over time. "I think hip hop has replaced it as a sentiment of larger, working class population," Nugent said. As a result, no nightclubs or cafés in the city play blues five nights a week.
House, maintained that in the black community, which once was the biggest supporter of the blues "they mostly listen to popular music like that of Beyonce and not enough blues."
Some musicians, such as Rocco DeRosa, think the problems lies with the musicians and the audience who take it as a "simple music, thus completely missing its subtle complexities."
Some have argued that when younger city folk play blues music, it moves further away from its roots as a social voice. The problem gets aggravated, many said, when the audience happens to be mostly middle-aged whites who have no association with migration, racism, poverty and other social ills.
"They don't come from a life of struggle and repression that the early Afro-American Blues musicians did. I certainly don't. I grew up never wanting for food, clothing or shelter," said Bruce McGrath, who along with Fardy, hosts Tuesday Blues Jam at Paddy Os.
In spite of the fact that there is a small and thriving blues music scene in Boston, the future does not seem so bright. As Nugent said, "The blues audience has gotten older and thus shrinking attendance at clubs, and clubs closing. The young people don't seem to like it."
Brief History of Blues Music
Blues music developed in the 1890s in response to the hardships endured by generations of black people. Initially the songs consisted of field hollers, which served as a means of communication among plantation workers and slaves.
The earliest blues music, known as country or delta blues, was a product of the 19th-century Southern rural experience after Emancipation. Itinerant singers, guitarists, or harmonica players traveled around singing about love, freedom, sex, loneliness and the sorrows of life.
The first recording of the blues was made in 1895 and the first blues song recorded was George W. Johnson's "Laughing Song."
It was said that W.C. Handy, musician and bandleader of the Mahara Minstrels, came across the blues in a Tutwiler, Mississippi train station in 1903. According to Handy, while he was waiting for the train he heard the sound of a man running a knife against the strings of his guitar while he sang, "Goin' where the Southern cross the Dog." Handy was struck by the music. In 1912 Handy published "Memphis Blues." He was among the first to publish a song with "blues" in the title.
Important early blues musicians include Charlie Patton, Son House (who developed the bottleneck slide technique), and Robert Johnson.
In the early 20th century, folk singers migrated north bringing the blues with them. Country singers joined the New Orleans and Fast Western pianists' migration, and brought their style to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and New York. Classic blues singers along with these musicians introduced their blues style in clubs, theaters, and dance halls.
The blues came to the forefront in 1920, with Mamie Smith's recording of "Crazy Blues." The record sold 75,000 copies the first month of release.
Another landmark in blues history was the release of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Long Lonesome Blues" which set the stage for a new era of the blues. However, the Depression of 1929, hit many blues singers hard.
After World War II, the center of blues activity moved to cities such as Chicago, where the musicians like Muddy Waters, BB King and Buddy Guy intensified the sound by amplifying the guitars and emphasizing the drums.
During the 1960s, white musicians from the US and England discovered the old recordings of the early bluesmen. This led the way to a blues revival.
Today, the blues is recognized for its influence on other genres of music, such as rock and roll, rhythm and blues, jazz, country, rap and hip-hop.
Sources and links to related sites:
The History of Blues Music: The Classic Era
Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta by Robert Palmer
The History of the Blues: The Roots, The Music, The People by Francis Davis
The Devils Music: A History of the Blues by Giles Oakley
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