501 Critical Reading Questions
Critical Reading Questions
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501 Critical Reading Questions
Critical Reading Questions
(10) (15) (20) (25) (30) (35) (40) (1) (5) 1 6 7 Congress has declared that the blues is “the most influential form of American roots music.” In fact, the two most popular American musi- cal forms—rock and roll and jazz—owe their genesis in large part (some would argue entirely) to the blues. The blues—a neologism attributed to the American writer Wash- ington Irving (author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”) in 1807— evolved from black American folk music. Its beginnings can be traced to songs sung in the fields and around slave quarters on southern plan- tations, songs of pain and suffering, of injustice, of longing for a bet- ter life. A fundamental principle of the blues, however, is that the music be cathartic. Listening to the blues will drive the blues away; it is music that has the power to overcome sadness. Thus “the blues” is something of a misnomer, for the music is moving but not melancholy; it is, in fact, music born of hope, not despair. The blues began to take shape as a musical movement in the years after emancipation, around the turn of the century when blacks were technically free but still suffered from social and economic discrimi- nation. Its poetic and musical forms were popularized by W. C. Handy just after the turn of the century. Handy, a classical guitarist who reportedly heard the blues for the first time in a Mississippi train sta- tion, was the first to officially compose and distribute “blues” music throughout the United States, although its popularity was chiefly among blacks in the South. The movement coalesced in the late 1920s and indeed became a national craze with records by blues singers such as Bessie Smith selling in the millions. The 1930s and 1940s saw a continued growth in the popularity of the blues as many blacks migrated north and the blues and jazz forms continued to develop, diversify, and influence each other. It was at this time that Son House, Willie Brown, and Robert Johnson played, while the next decade saw the emergence of the blues greats Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Johnny Lee Hooker. After rock and roll exploded on the music scene in the 1950s, many rock artists began covering blues songs, thus bringing the blues to a young white audience and giving it true national and international exposure. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Cream, and others remade blues songs such as Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” and Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go” to wide popularity. People all across America—black and white, young and old, listened to songs with lyrics that were intensely honest and personal, songs that told about any number of things that give us the blues: loneliness, betrayal, unrequited love, a run of bad luck, being out of work or away from home or broke or broken hearted. It was a music perfectly suited 501 Download 0.98 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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