Brinolia’s Genre Journey

When: 1910 Super Genre: Blues Description: “ Country Blues means rural Blues; Blues far away from the city, at a time when there existed almost no popular music whatsoever. Country Blues did not evolve out of Country music: it was the other way around. Therefore the only existing music besides Folk and Classical music at the time of Blues’s conception was Gospel. Almost automatically, Blues becomes the antithesis of Gospel. Wandering black singers who lost their faith due to misfortune slowly but steadily developed their personal, secular type of Gospel or more accurately: “badspel”, as there was little positive news for them to tell. At first they simply used (cheap) banjos, and later bottleneck guitars on which they liked to play blue notes while singing AAB verses. The music was very spontaneous and improvised: singers would play any chords and sing any lyrics that would come to mind, but often about tragic or depressing events. Folk or Country Blues has almost as many different sub...

When: 1940 Super Genre: Blues / (r&b) Description: “Shouting, clapping, backbeat, big bands…: Jump Blues is unmistakably the most swinging, optimistic and humorous type of Blues, a large contrast with some other Blues genres. When the rest of the world was concerned with WWII, the East Coast of the US seemed t o live in a happy bubble with this uptempo, bouncing, rolling, rumbling and tumbling music (and let's not forget jumping of course). But Jump Blues also became highly popular in the West Coast, where it was played at L.A.’s clubs and evolved into West Coast Blues. Jump Blues is proto Rhythm & Blues and therefore proto Rock ‘n’ Roll, which implies that it was simply too popular and catchy to be constrained within the family line of Blues.” -  Musicmap Sample Song: Shake, Rattle and Roll by Big Joe Turner Up next…Rhythm & Blues

 When: 1928 Super Genre: Blues Description: “Inspired by Ragtime music, Blues got introduced to the piano by the end of the twenties, forming Piano Blues but better known as Boogie Woogie. Similar to Ragtime, left hand provided a steady bass and the right hand provided the treble counterpoint. The result was a very rhythmic, syncopated Blues, much more uptempo and happy than usual. The piano also made it possible to add a 4/4 beat, with accent on 2nd and 4th beat. Hence, Boogie Woogie introduced the backbeat into the world of music: a milestone of great significance. Boogie Woogie’s backbeat is called a shuffle, and it made people’s feet move everywhere. Boogie Woogie formed the ideal relief after the Great Depression and epitomized music removed of inhibition following the end of prohibition. As a post-depression natural muscle stimulant, Boogie Woogie rapidly became the drug of choice in the thirties, and it wouldn’t take long before “doing the boogie” was a common phrase for dan...