From the story, Petrusich gives a great story on how blues got started and how it began to get popular in Memphis. It all starts with the fact that Beale street became a large percent of the African American population in Memphis. Yellow fever made that happen and on Beale street, music began playing from churches and nightclubs. Then in 1909, Boss Crump became a mayoral candidate in the city of Memphis. With him running, a blues song by the name of "boss crump blues" became a huge hit.
The reason that the song became so popular was not because of the political impact, but because of how the song was structured. The song was no like traditional pop structure. It follows its own scale and does not have a verse or a chorus. It was also only performed by one person, rather than a group. So Memphis was not only the birthplace of blues, but it also changed the course of American music in general.
From the reading, I believe that the city of Memphis had to give part of the creation of blues, but not entirely. From previous knowledge “American History,” a course I took in high school, “African Music’ was originated from an urban development of the early 1900s triggered as a result of The Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was cultural movement know as the “New Negro Movement” that sort of speaks out the words, “it’s our time” kind of emphasizing that it was time for African American to have their say and create artistic, and authentic styles in music. Though the movement was centered in Harlem, NY, I think that the majority of creativity-ness in music had to branch off cities in the south like Memphis, and New Orleans. Like Petrusich said in the chapter, “Beale Street boasts a terrifically rich history.” After the yellow fever epidemic scared of most of Memphis’s white population, Memphis became a largely black city population, and Beale Street became an African American joint with music coming churches and nightclubs. The confluence of liquor, clubs, brothels, churches, and speakeasies, sponsored a lot of the creation of blues. She also states that African field songs interjected with the rhythm of the work from slaves and later developed into the city’s musical vocabulary known as the Memphis blues. As Memphis’s black population soared after the epidemic, mayoral candidate Boss Crump had commissioned W.C. Handy (a profession black songwriter) to create a theme “song” for his campaign, “Boss Crump Blues.”. The song became a hit. It disregarded traditional pop structure, had no verse or chorus, its own melodic scale, and was performed by a one man alone, rather than a band. People like the way his technique and music was about sorrow and not joy and that it is “sung with the belly-born anguish of poverty” (29). The blues not only added a new form of sound in music but also the song “Boss Crump Blues,” was sought to change and bring in new forms of American music.
From the story, Petrusich gives a great story on how blues got started and how it began to get popular in Memphis. It all starts with the fact that Beale street became a large percent of the African American population in Memphis. Yellow fever made that happen and on Beale street, music began playing from churches and nightclubs. Then in 1909, Boss Crump became a mayoral candidate in the city of Memphis. With him running, a blues song by the name of "boss crump blues" became a huge hit.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that the song became so popular was not because of the political impact, but because of how the song was structured. The song was no like traditional pop structure. It follows its own scale and does not have a verse or a chorus. It was also only performed by one person, rather than a group. So Memphis was not only the birthplace of blues, but it also changed the course of American music in general.
Response - Luis Vargas
ReplyDeleteFrom the reading, I believe that the city of Memphis had to give part of the creation of blues, but not entirely. From previous knowledge “American History,” a course I took in high school, “African Music’ was originated from an urban development of the early 1900s triggered as a result of The Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was cultural movement know as the “New Negro Movement” that sort of speaks out the words, “it’s our time” kind of emphasizing that it was time for African American to have their say and create artistic, and authentic styles in music. Though the movement was centered in Harlem, NY, I think that the majority of creativity-ness in music had to branch off cities in the south like Memphis, and New Orleans.
Like Petrusich said in the chapter, “Beale Street boasts a terrifically rich history.” After the yellow fever epidemic scared of most of Memphis’s white population, Memphis became a largely black city population, and Beale Street became an African American joint with music coming churches and nightclubs. The confluence of liquor, clubs, brothels, churches, and speakeasies, sponsored a lot of the creation of blues. She also states that African field songs interjected with the rhythm of the work from slaves and later developed into the city’s musical vocabulary known as the Memphis blues. As Memphis’s black population soared after the epidemic, mayoral candidate Boss Crump had commissioned W.C. Handy (a profession black songwriter) to create a theme “song” for his campaign, “Boss Crump Blues.”. The song became a hit. It disregarded traditional pop structure, had no verse or chorus, its own melodic scale, and was performed by a one man alone, rather than a band. People like the way his technique and music was about sorrow and not joy and that it is “sung with the belly-born anguish of poverty” (29). The blues not only added a new form of sound in music but also the song “Boss Crump Blues,” was sought to change and bring in new forms of American music.