The blues has its roots in African music and culture. There are two main types of blues: Delta blues and Chicago blues. Delta blues originated in the Mississippi Delta region and features simple instrumentation like guitar and voice, with influences from African call-and-response traditions. Chicago blues later developed an electrified sound with influences from musicians like B.B. King. The blues had a profound influence on developing genres like rock and roll, with its use of electric instruments and guitar styles being widely adapted.

1. THE BLUES
Myriah Phillips

2. AFRICAN INFLUENCE
 African Music and Culture played a large role in shaping Blues.
 “The tone and timbre of African music also reflects a great
influence on the early blues. These aspects of the music centered on
the playing style and accompaniment articles. Flattened notes and
fluctuated tone, played to an upward drive in accordance with the
drum rhythms, sound strikingly similar to pentatonic and heptatonic
scales”(Miller, 2002).

3. AFRICAN INFLUENCE

4. TYPES OF BLUES
 There are many different types of Blues, listed are the two most
influential styles.
 Delta Blue
 Chicago Blues

5. THE DELTA BLUES
 The Delta Blues’ deepest roots lay in the music of Africa. The music
made its way to North America through the culture of the 15 to 20
million slaves brought during the 300 years of the slave trade.
 Call and response is one of the driving forces behind the Delta Blues.
This form of the Blues is gritty and very often just features an acoustic
guitar and the voice of the singer who is usually a male.
 One of the most famous Delta Blues Musicians was Robert Johnson

6. DELTA BLUES

7. CHICAGO BLUES
 . “Chicago blues refers to a sound that arose among musicians who
had migrated from Mississippi and were living in Chicago just after World
War II” (Titon, 134)
 The featured instrument of the Chicago style blues is the electric
guitar. One of the most famous musicians of this style to rock the
electric guitar and have such an influence on many styles of music was B.
B. King. The upright bass guitar was also introduced when the Chicago
style blues became a hit in the early 1960s.

8. B. B. KING

9. INFLUENCE ON AMERICAN
POP MUSIC
 The Blues has become one of the most important music genres in American history.
It is the architect of the pop music we listen to today, from Rap to Rock to R&B and Jazz.
With out some of the instruments, rhythms, and scales that the blues has created,
American Popular music would not exist.
 One of the ways that the Blues helped in the creation of rock and roll is by paving
the way with the use of things like electric instruments. “The screaming guitar lines of
heavy-metal music are an interpretation (some would say a misinterpretation) of the blues
lead-guitar styles of B. B. King, Albert King, Freddy King, Elmore James, and others.
Most rock fans do not realize the debt that rock owes to blues and the African America
community” (Titon, 135).

10. WORKS CITED
 Miller, James. "The Origins of the Mississippi Delta Blues." Historical
Text Archive: Electronic History Resources, Online since 1990. 20 May 2002.
Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
 Tilton, J. T. (2009). World of music: An introduction to the music of
the world’s peoples. Belmont: Schirmer Cengage Learning.
 Waterman, L. S. (2010). American Popular Music from Minstrelsy to MP3.
Ney York: Oxford University Press.
 Photo of B. B. King Charlie Gillett/Redferns

11. WORKS CITED
 Youtube video Robert Johnston
:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI4sa9A
 Youtube video The African Roots of the Blues. Part
1:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRhVTjNvicU