{"id":8196,"date":"2023-11-07T09:24:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T15:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=8196"},"modified":"2023-11-07T09:24:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T15:24:02","slug":"blues-and-jazz-popular-music-or-folk-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2023\/11\/07\/blues-and-jazz-popular-music-or-folk-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues and Jazz: Popular Music or Folk Music?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u201cIt ain\u2019t what it was,\u201d the old folks say, but New Orleans jazz is still better and more boisterous than you get served and verve up to you anywhere else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As early as the pre-civil war days, New Orleans residents played jazz and the blues. One big contribution to this celebration of music occurred when a group called the Carpetbaggers came to town. \u201cThey were hated by the local French whites, but loved by the local jazz players because they kind of \u201cwent for\u201d the music. Word spread about the amazing, unique sounds of the Carpetbaggers all along the Mississippi River. As time passed, and music spread further, a business-man from out of New York City came along and signed the Carpetbaggers to a contract, spreading the blues from beyond the South. And the rest is history.1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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New Orleans Blues and Jazz Band (Buddy Bolden’s, back row, center left, Band), 19056<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The Mississippi River played a massive role in continuing the Black American tradition of jazz and blues music. \u201cThe famous U.S. Highway 61, known as the \u201cblues highway\u201d rivals Route 66 as the most famous road in American music lore. Dozens of blues artists have recorded about Highway 61.\u201d A popular theme of these songs include the \u201cpack up and go\u201d mindset: leave troubles behind to seek out new opportunities, which is what many musicians decided to do. The original road traveled through and\/or near cities such as Baton Rouge, Cleveland, Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago to name a few. What do these cities have in common? They all continued to spread the love of blues and jazz music.2<\/sup><\/a> Music in California, Chicago, and New York, were leading contributions to the birthplace of big time band leading, where larger ensembles with more orchestration began to grow.3<\/sup><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

As jazz and blues music grew nationwide, the question at hand was if the spread of music was in honor of the tradition, or if the spread of music was in hopes to gain popularity both in the style and its musicians, further classifying this music as \u201cpopular music.\u201d Bruce Jackson explains The American Folksong Revival in Jeff Todd Titon\u2019s \u201cReconstructing the Blues: Reflections on the 1960s Blues Revival (Page 73): \u201cMany writers and festival fans claimed the revival provided an opportunity for millions of modern Americans to better understand their country\u2019s musical roots, as well as an opportunity to honor the musicians who still represented those traditions. Others\u2013often disparagingly referred to as \u201cpurists\u201d \u2013were certain the revival and its attendant commercialism would provide the death stroke for whatever fragile rural and ethnic traditions still survived.\u201d4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We, as musicians, can identify that most, if not all, different styles of blues music continued the legacy of its origins in two ways: (1) with the ever-present \u201cblues scale\u201d and (2) with the form, commonly referred to as the \u201c12 bar blues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, \u201cOnce Southern migrants introduced the blues to urban Northern cities, the music developed into distinctive regional styles, ranging from the jazz-oriented Kansas City blues to the swing-based West Coast blues. Chicago blues musicians such as Muddy Waters were the first to electrify the blues through the use of electric guitars and to blend urban style with classic Southern blues.\u201d5<\/sup><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Even though these cities were introducing new populations to the origins of jazz and blues music, by the time these tunes were heard by audiences, they were drastically different from when they arrived. Another realization that I had when researching this topic was the fact that many blues composers would create their own melodies with the 12 bar blues form, but then would simply slap a location in the title, followed by blues, and call it good. New York City Blues, West End Blues, West Coast Blues, Statesboro Blues, Chicago Blues, St. Louis Blues, to name a few. Now where these titles meant to convey symbolic meaning by the composer? Or were these titles labeled to further gain popularity by the jazz and blues listeners of these respective locations? This isn\u2019t a question that I can necessarily answer, but it brings up a great point: As we listen or play music such as the blues, are we interacting with the intent of acknowledging the history and origin, or are we interacting because it is catchy or popular? Is blues and jazz music considered folk music or popular music? Both of these questions don\u2019t have right or wrong answers, nor do they have only one explanation. They do, however, require perspective when being placed in these conversations, and perspective requires more focus on the intention when engaging with these music styles.<\/span><\/p>\n

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1 <\/a>Battelle, Phyllis. “How Jazz Music Migrated North and Captured Broadway’s Fancy: Oldtimer Tells ‘Woes’ of Men Who Pioneered.”\u00a0Daily Defender (Daily Edition) (1956-1960),<\/i>\u00a0May 21, 1957, https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/historical-newspapers\/how-jazz-music-migrated-north-captured-broadways\/docview\/493656959\/se-2 (accessed November 7, 2023).<\/p>\n

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2 <\/a>\u201cHighway 61 Blues.\u201d The Mississippi Blues Trail, September 5, 2022. https:\/\/msbluestrail.org\/blues-trail-markers\/highway-61-north#:~:text=Some%20suggested%20that%20the%20road,journeys%20by%20continuing%20from%20St.<\/p>\n

3 <\/a>Roy, Rob. “Old Tymer Discovers Bop and Jazz Rooted at Base of Current ‘Raves’: Dixie Artists Hit N. Y. and Chicago Combining Styles.”\u00a0The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967),<\/i>\u00a0Jun 11, 1955, https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/historical-newspapers\/old-tymer-discovers-bop-jazz-rooted-at-base\/docview\/492899440\/se-2 (accessed November 7, 2023).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>4 <\/a>Rosenberg, Neil V. \u201cThe Folksong Revival: Bruce Jackson.\u201d Essay. In Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined<\/i>. Urbana u.a.: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1993.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

5 <\/a>[Author removed at request of original publisher]. \u201c6.2 the Evolution of Popular Music.\u201d Understanding Media and Culture, March 22, 2016. https:\/\/open.lib.umn.edu\/mediaandculture\/chapter\/6-2-the-evolution-of-popular-music\/.<\/p>\n

<\/a>6 <\/a>\u201cA New Orleans Jazz History, 1895-1927.\u201d National Parks Service. Accessed November 7, 2023. https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/jazz\/learn\/historyculture\/jazz_history.htm.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u201cIt ain\u2019t what it was,\u201d the old folks say, but New Orleans jazz is still better and more boisterous than you get served and verve up to you anywhere else.\u201d As early as the pre-civil war days, New Orleans residents … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1397],"tags":[38,145,33,36,543,517],"class_list":["post-8196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2023-mus-345-b","tag-12-bar-blues","tag-black-folk-music","tag-blues","tag-early-jazz","tag-new-orleans","tag-popular-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-28c","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8198,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196\/revisions\/8198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}