CI5472 Teaching Film, Television, and Media
Module 9: Popular Music and Radio ~ Different Music Genres
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The blues is another important genre that, as with rock, is grounded in Black song traditions of the Mississippi Delta that migrated to St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago in the 1930s–1960s. The blues represented a tool for coping with everyday problems with love relationships, work, family, and death. It also drew on Black gospel music in terms of its rhythm and style. |
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A key focus in studying a blues song is the idea of a lament about a loss or problem in one’s life—a broken relationship, a death, or a traumatic change in one’s life—and how one may deal with this loss or problem. Central to the lament is repetition of certain key lyrics or the refrain. |
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Having studying the blues genre form, students would then write their own blues song about problems or issues in their own lives. |
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In 2003, Congress declared that year as the “Year of the Blues,” to celebrate the 100 years since the presumed origin of the blues in 1903. Click here for an exhibit of the early blues artists at the EMI Seattle Music Museum. |
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For further information on lots of related topics: |
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Blues discography [information on hundreds of records] |
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For further reading: |
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Bogdanov, V., Woodstra, C., & Erlewine, S.
(Eds.). (2003). All music guide to the blues: The definitive
guide to the blues. New York: Backbeat. |
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Cohn, L., (1999). Nothing but the blues: The music and the musicians. New York: Abbeville Press. |
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Guralnick, P, & Santelli, R. (2003). Martin Scorsese presents the blues: A musical journey. New York: Amisted Press. |
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Jones, L. (1999). Blues people: Negro music in White America. New York: William Morrow. |
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Blues | |
