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Is blues a dying art?

#101
I used to be really into blues music in my late teens and early twenties. Much of it is tired and cliche. There really is no innovation happening in the genre.

I just happened to watch one of those bar rescue type of shows last week. The bar in question exclusively had blues bands performing. The consultant said that only 3% of the population cite blues music as their favorite type of music. My gut tells me that is probably accurate!
 
#103
Rhode Island, home of Duke Robillard, and Roomful Of Blues, is crawling with the blues. There are blues jam sessions almost every night of the week. Personally, I like jazz blues more than the primitive stuff. With jazz blues, there comes a better cut of players that can stretch and be creative.
 
#104
the blues seem to be alive and well in the SF Bay Area and in points beyond. Guys like Chris Cain and Tommy Castro pack the clubs wherever they play around here.

Though in the South Bay (Silicon Valley) the places to go hear and play the blues seem to be dwindling, many venues that support live music of all types are closing :scowl:
 
#106
JimK said:
That is the most common...as you said, there are many variations; example: 16-Bar Blues. Jazz musicians also 're-harmonized the basic 1-4-5 progression into other variants (e.g. Bird Changes). Another thing to consider..."the feel". Some Blues are "straight", some are Shuffles, some swing, some are in 3/4, 5/4, etc.
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I reject "16 bar blues" as blues. Nice compositions? Sure. It's the 12 bar form, and the mastery of it that makes blues brilliant. It's what puts Miles Davis and Stevie Ray in the same echelon.
 
#107
Double E said:
The blues is a style of music, like any other.
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Huh?:rollno:
"Blues" is the bastard child of the plantation prisoners back when dogs were treated better.

Doubt any other "style" has that history. :eek:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues
Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States.
 
#109
Blues was indeed born in the USA. It's history cites the best and worst in us. At some level, it's birth was the collision of the tribal chants of the American slave with European instruments. However we got here. I like the music.
 
#111
JoeWPgh said:
I reject "16 bar blues" as blues. Nice compositions? Sure. It's the 12 bar form, and the mastery of it that makes blues brilliant. It's what puts Miles Davis and Stevie Ray in the same echelon.
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Like Glenn said, what about King Bee? What about Shake Your Hips? What about most of John Lee Hooker's work? I play in a blues band and at least as many of our songs are non-12 bar as those that are the 12 bar form. People have been playing things besides 12 bar blues since the beginning, and they haven't required your validation.
 
#113
Personally, I don't know how anyone can consider the blues boring after listening to Jimmie Vaughan. He's the most innovative guitarist of the last few decades, IMO. He's miles more interesting than his brother ever was, as far as I can hear. I mean, Jimmie plays the blues and Stevie played blues rock, so they can't be compared, really. I just wish Buddy Guy would start playing like he meant it again. He hasn't done much good since the mid-70s, IMO.
 
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#115
I posted the link to Ana Popovic as evidence that the blues is not dead.

Then there is this: Invalid Link Removed

And, someone mentioned Hip Shake, or Shake your hips by Slim Harpo. Probably more accurately described as a boogie, but close enough.

Here's proof the song still has life:
 
#116
JoeWPgh said:
I never said something could not be bluesy, in even the best possible way, outside of the 12 bar form. Blues is 12 bars - a standard understood across the planet.
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But all the songs Glenn and I mentioned are "the blues" and 10x more-so than any hackneyed 12 bar shuffle that sounds like a sick car with a flat tire, played at a biker rally. You're getting a form, like how jazz musicians refer to a form as 'playing a blues', and a tradition confused. If 'Shake Your Hips' isn't the blues, I don't know what is. If 'Tupelo Blues' isn't the blues, nothing is.
 
#118
AMPEG IAN said:
John Mayer is an awsome blues guitarist, I saw him on tv the other day and he blew everybody away with his chops.
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tumblr_md3o6aXW941r5vpk0o1_500.jpg
 
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#120
Stumbo said:
Huh?:rollno:
"Blues" is the bastard child of the plantation prisoners back when dogs were treated better.

Doubt any other "style" has that history. :eek:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues
Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States.
Click to expand...

Yep, just as your wiki quote says...the blues evolved! From the unaccompanied vocal music into a widely accepted and practiced musical genre that is just as important to our culture today as classical music was in it's day.

The blues have influenced most of our popular music and has reached far beyond its roots to be enjoyed by people of all walks of life.
 

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