| Blues-rock | |
| Stylistic origins | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins |
early 1960s in England and United States
|
| Typical instruments | |
| Mainstream popularity | Peak popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression The electric blues is a type of Blues music distinguished by the amplification of the Guitar, the Bass guitar, and/or the Harmonica Rock and roll (also known as rock 'n' roll) is a form of Music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s with roots in mostly African England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The United States of America —commonly referred to as the An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the A drum kit (also drum set or trap set) is a collection of Drums Cymbals and sometimes other Percussion instruments such as cowbells Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, which is often contrasted with Speech. The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company A harmonica is a free reed Wind instrument which is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes (reed chambers or |
| Derivative forms | Heavy metal[1][2] - Hard rock |
| Fusion genres | |
| Punk blues | |
Blues-rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with Rock and Roll styles. Hard rock (also referred to as heavy rock) is a variation of Rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and Psychedelic rock Punk blues (or blues punk) denotes a Rock music fusion of Punk rock and Blues. The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression Improvisation (also called extemporization) is the practice of acting singing talking and reacting of making and creating in the moment and in response to the stimulus of Boogie is a repetitive Swung note or Shuffle Rhythm, "groove" or pattern used in Blues which was originally played A jam session is a Musical act where Musicians gather and play (or "jam") without extensive preparation or predefined Arrangements Rock and roll (also known as rock 'n' roll) is a form of Music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s with roots in mostly African The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a tube guitar amplifier, giving it an overdriven character. An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the A drum kit (also drum set or trap set) is a collection of Drums Cymbals and sometimes other Percussion instruments such as cowbells
The style began to develop in the mid-1960s in England and the United States, as what one music critic called a "genre of rhythm'n'blues played by white European musicians". England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The United States of America —commonly referred to as the UK Bands such as Cream and The Rolling Stones experimented with music from the older American bluesmen like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. Cream were a 1960s British rock band Chester Burnett redirects here For the American football player see Chester Burnett (American football Chester Arthur Burnett ( June 10, 1910 For the album by Redman, see Muddy Waters (album. For the college football coach see Muddy Waters (football coach. [3]While the early blues-rock bands "attempted to play long, involved improvisations which were commonplace on jazz records", by the 1970s, blues rock got heavier and more riff-based. [3] By the "early '70s, the lines between blues-rock and hard rock were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. Hard rock (also referred to as heavy rock) is a variation of Rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and Psychedelic rock In the 1980s and 1990s, blues-rock bands returned to their bluesy roots, and some of these bands, such as the "Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan flirted with rock stardom. The Fabulous Thunderbirds are a Blues-rock band, formed in 1974. Stephen "Stevie" Ray Vaughan ( October 3, 1954 August 27, 1990) was an American Blues-rock Guitarist " [3]
Contents |
Characteristics
Blues-rock can be characterized by bluesy improvisation, the 12-bar blues, extended boogie jams typically focused on the electric guitar player, and often a heavier, riff-oriented sound and feel to the songs than might be found in traditional Chicago-style blues. Improvisation (also called extemporization) is the practice of acting singing talking and reacting of making and creating in the moment and in response to the stimulus of Boogie is a repetitive Swung note or Shuffle Rhythm, "groove" or pattern used in Blues which was originally played A jam session is a Musical act where Musicians gather and play (or "jam") without extensive preparation or predefined Arrangements An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder In Music, a riff is an Ostinato figure a repeated Chord progression, pattern refrain or melodic figure, often played by the Rhythm The Chicago blues is a form of Blues music that developed in Chicago Illinois by taking the basic acoustic guitar and Harmonica -based Delta blues Blues rock bands "borrow[ed] the idea of an instrumental combo and loud amplification from rock & roll". [3] It is also often played at a fast tempo, again distinguishing it from the blues. [3]
Instrumentation
The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit. An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the A drum kit (also drum set or trap set) is a collection of Drums Cymbals and sometimes other Percussion instruments such as cowbells The electric guitar is usually amplified through a tube guitar amplifier or using an overdrive effect. Often two guitars are played in blues rock bands, one playing the accompaniment riffs and chords on rhythm guitar and one playing the melodic lines and solos of the lead guitar part. In Music, a riff is an Ostinato figure a repeated Chord progression, pattern refrain or melodic figure, often played by the Rhythm Rhythm guitar is the use of a Guitar to provide Rhythmic chordal Accompaniment for a singer or other instruments in a Musical ensemble Lead guitar refers to the use of a Guitar to perform Melody lines instrumental fill passages, and Guitar solos within a song structure [3] While 1950s-era blues bands would sometimes still use the upright bass, the blues rock bands of the 1960s used the electric bass, which was easier to amplify to loud volumes. The double bass is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed String instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra. Keyboard instruments such as the piano and Hammond organ are also occasionally used. An electronic keyboard or digital keyboard is a type of Keyboard instrument. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company As with the electric guitar, the sound of the Hammond organ is typically amplified with a tube amplifier, which gives a growling, "overdriven" sound quality to the instrument. Vocals also typically play a key role, although the vocals may be equal in importance or even subordinate to the lead guitar playing; as well, a number of blues-rock pieces are instrumental-only.
Structure
Blues-rock pieces normally follow the 12-bar blues structure, but often follow a slightly different structure, as seen in the Allman Brothers version of the T-Bone Walker song "Stormy Monday", which follows the general format of a 12-bar blues, but with altered chords, playing:
- G9 | C9 | G9 | G9 | C9 | C9 | G9 / A minor7 | B minor7 / B♭7 | A minor7 | A♭ major7 | G9 / C9 | G9 / D augmented
. The Allman Brothers Band is a Southern rock band based in Macon, Georgia. Aaron Thibeaux Walker or T-Bone Walker or Oak Cliff T-Bone ( May 26 1910 — March 15 1975 Walker's recording " Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad " also known as "Call It Stormy Monday", or just "Stormy Monday", is a In Music or Music theory a ninth is the Note nine Scale degrees from the root of chord (counting the root itself and also A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a Seventh above the chord's root. In Music theory, a minor chord ( is a chord having a root, a Minor third, and a Perfect fifth. In Music theory, a major chord ( is a chord having a root, a Major third, and a Perfect fifth. . . instead of the expected G | C | G | G | C | C | G | G | D | C | G | G (D) progression. The progression is usually repeated, with only one section of the song, though there are exceptions, some pieces having a "B" section. The key is traditionally major, but can also be minor, a common technique being the use the minor pentatonic scale, with blue notes, over a major chord progression, as employed by Albert King in nearly all of his pieces. In Music, the adjectives major and minor can describe a scale, key, chord, or interval. In Music, the adjectives major and minor can describe a scale, key, chord, or interval. A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitches per Octave in contrast to an heptatonic (seven note scale such as the Major scale In Jazz and Blues, a blue note (also "worried" note is a Note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the Albert King ( April 25 1923 &ndash December 21 1992) was an American Blues Guitarist and Singer The lead guitar typically uses the pentatonic scale, either major or minor, when soloing.
A classic example of blues-rock is Cream's "Crossroads" on "Wheels of Fire" album, adapted from Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues" and "Traveling Riverside Blues". Cream were a 1960s British rock band " Cross Road Blues " is one of Delta Blues singer Robert Johnson 's most famous Songs The Lyrics plainly have the narrator attempting Wheels of Fire is the name of a double album recorded by Cream. Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8 1911 – August 16 1938 is among the most famous of Delta blues musicians " Cross Road Blues " is one of Delta Blues singer Robert Johnson 's most famous Songs The Lyrics plainly have the narrator attempting " Travelling Riverside Blues " is a Blues song written and recorded in Dallas Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. It fuses some of the lyrical and musical styles of blues with rock-styled tempo and guitar solos. Guitar solos are a melodic passage section or entire piece of music written for an Electric guitar or an Acoustic guitar.
History
While rock and blues have historically always been closely linked, blues-rock as a distinctly recognizable genre did not arise until the late 1960s. " Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad " also known as "Call It Stormy Monday", or just "Stormy Monday", is a The Allman Brothers Band is a Southern rock band based in Macon, Georgia. In 1963 American guitarist Lonnie Mack developed the guitar style which came to be identified with blues-rock. Lonnie Mack (born Lonnie McIntosh, 18 July 1941 Dearborn County, Indiana) is a rock and Blues Guitarist. That year, he released several full-length rock guitar instrumentals strongly grounded in the blues, the best-known of which are the hit singles "Memphis" (Billboard #5) and "Wham!" (Billboard #24). However, blues-rock was not considered a distinct movement within rock until a few years later, with the advent of such British bands as Free, Savoy Brown and the earliest incarnations of Fleetwood Mac, whose members had honed their skills in a handful of British blues bands, primarily those of John Mayall and Alexis Korner. Free were an English Rock band, formed in London in 1968 and best known for their popular song " All Right Now " Savoy Brown is a British Blues band formed in the 1960s Career Originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band their 1969 single Fleetwood Mac are a British / American John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is a pioneering English Blues Singer, Songwriter, and multi- Instrumentalist Alexis Korner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984 born Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner, was a pioneering Blues Musician and broadcaster who has sometimes At that point, Mack's recordings were rediscovered and he, too, came to be regarded as a blues-rock artist. Other American performers, such as Johnny Winter, Paul Butterfield and the group Canned Heat are also considered blues-rock pioneers. John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III (born on 23 February, 1944 in Beaumont Texas, USA is an American Blues guitarist Paul Butterfield ( December 17 1942 – May 4 1987) was an American Blues Harmonica player and Singer Canned Heat is a Blues-rock /boogie band that formed in Los Angeles in 1965
Music critic Piero Scaruffi argues that the blues-rock genre was defined when John Mayall released the album Bluesbreakers in 1966, which included guitarist Eric Clapton. John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is a pioneering English Blues Singer, Songwriter, and multi- Instrumentalist John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band led by Singer, Songwriter, and Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945 is an English Blues-rock Guitarist, singer Songwriter and Composer Scaruffi defines "blues-rock" as a "genre of rhythm'n'blues played by white European musicians. " Scaruffic claims that the US "equivalent of John Mayall was Al Kooper. Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt, February 5 1944, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American Songwriter, " Cream "took the fusion of blues and rock to places where it had never been before" by engaging in a "level of group improvisation that was worthy of jazz. " He calls Fleetwood Mac (during the Peter Green period in the late 1960s) "one of the most creative and competent British bands of the blues revival. " [4]blues. Scaruffi argues that the "British blues musicians were true innovators", in that they did a "metamorphosis" on US blues and "turned it into a "white" music" by emphasizing "the epic refrains of the call and response", speeding up the "Chicago's [(Chicago Blues)] rhythm guitars," smoothing "the vocal delivery to make it sound more operatic" and adding vocal harmony. Call and response is a form of "spontaneous verbal and non-verbal interaction between speaker and listener in which all of the statements ('calls' are punctuated by expressions ('responses' The Chicago blues is a form of Blues music that developed in Chicago Illinois by taking the basic acoustic guitar and Harmonica -based Delta blues Rhythm guitar is the use of a Guitar to provide Rhythmic chordal Accompaniment for a singer or other instruments in a Musical ensemble [5]
The revolutionary electric guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix (a veteran of many American rhythm & blues and soul groups from the early-mid 1960s) and his power trios, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys, has had broad and lasting influence on the development of blues-rock, especially for guitarists. James Marshall Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix) (November 27 1942 – September 18 1970 was an American Guitarist, Singer and Songwriter Soul music is a Music genre that combines Rhythm and blues and Gospel music, originating in the United States. The power trio is a Rock and roll band format popularized in the 1960s Band of Gypsys is a Live album and a project by Jimi Hendrix, backed by Billy Cox and Buddy Miles, that followed Hendrix's A guitarist is a Musician who plays the Guitar. Guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres Eric Clapton was another guitarist with a lasting influence on the genre; his work in the 1960s and 1970s with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds, supergroups Blind Faith, Cream and Derek and the Dominos, and an extensive solo career has been seminal in bringing blues-rock into the mainstream. Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945 is an English Blues-rock Guitarist, singer Songwriter and Composer John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is a pioneering English Blues Singer, Songwriter, and multi- Instrumentalist The Yardbirds are an English rock band noted for starting the careers of three of rock's most famous Guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck Blind Faith were an English blues-rock band that consisted of Eric Clapton Cream were a 1960s British rock band Derek and the Dominos were a Blues-rock supergroup formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock Mainstream is generally the common current of Thought of the Majority.
In the late '60s Jeff Beck a former member of The Yardbirds, revolutionised blues rock into a form of heavy rock, taking the UK and the USA by storm with his band, The Jeff Beck Group. Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born June 24, 1944 to Arnold and Ethel Beck in Wallington, England) is an English The Yardbirds are an English rock band noted for starting the careers of three of rock's most famous Guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Jeff Beck Group were an English Rock band formed in London in February 1967 by ex- Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. Jimmy Page, a third alumnus of The Yardbirds, went out to form The New Yardbirds which would soon become known as Led Zeppelin. James Patrick Page, OBE (born 9 January 1944 is an English Guitarist, Composer and record producer Led Zeppelin were Led Zeppelin was a huge force in the early 70s blues-rock scene. Other blues-rock musicians influential on the scene in the 1970s included Rory Gallagher and Robin Trower. Rory Gallagher (2 March 1948&ndash14 June 1995 was an Irish Blues / rock Guitarist Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal Robin Trower (born 9 March 1945 in Catford, South East London, England) is an English rock Guitarist
Beginning in the early 1970s, American bands such as Aerosmith fused blues and heavy metal similar to the way that Led Zeppelin had just a few years earlier. Aerosmith is an American Hard rock band sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston " and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" Blues-rock grew to include Southern rock and hard rock bands like the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd while the British scene — except for the advent of groups such as Foghat (founded by former Savoy Brown members) — became focused on heavy metal innovation. Southern rock is a subgenre of Rock music. It developed in the Southern United States from Rock and roll, Country music, and Blues Hard rock (also referred to as heavy rock) is a variation of Rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and Psychedelic rock The Allman Brothers Band is a Southern rock band based in Macon, Georgia. ZZ Top (ˌziːziːˈtɒp is an American rock band formed in late 1969 in Houston Texas. Lynyrd Skynyrd (ˌlɛnɚdˈskɪnɝd is an American Southern rock band Foghat are a British rock band who had their peak success in the mid- to late-1970s Blues-rock had a re-birth in the early 1990s, with many artists such as John Mayer, The Black Crowes, The Black Keys, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Silvertide, and Joe Bonamassa. John Clayton Mayer (; born October 16 1977 is an American musician The Black Crowes are an American, blues -oriented Hard rock Jam band that has sold over 20 million albums The Black Keys is a Blues-rock music duo consisting of Dan Auerbach ( vocals and Guitar) and Patrick Carney ( drums and Blues Explosion (formerly The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and sometimes abbreviated JSBX) is a New York -based Punk blues trio Silvertide is a rock band hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Joe Bonamassa (born May 8, 1977) is an American Blues Guitarist singer
For a longer list of blues rock groups and artists, see the List of blues-rock performers. Blues-rock is a hybrid musical genre which developed in the 1960s which combines elements of Blues music— 12-bar blues, extended Boogie
References
- ^ Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal: The Music and its Culture. DaCapo, 2000. ISBN 0-306-80970-2, pg. 14.
- ^ Christe, Ian. Sound of the Beast. Allison & Busby, pg. 1. ISBN 0749083514.
- ^ a b c d e f "Blues-rock," Allmusic. com (Accessed September 29 2006), <http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:50>
- ^ http://www.scaruffi.com/history/cpt22.html
- ^ http://www.scaruffi.com/history/cpt2.html
See also
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