Alright, sell me.
I don't like "the Blues" as a modern form of music. Show me why I'm wrong.
I tend to think it all sounds very similar.
NOW, I'm no idiot, I realize that the best art revolves around nuance etc. However, with the blues, i hear very little innovation. Am I wrong? I'd love to be proven wrong. Please post a blues song that you love in the comments. Please make it be recorded after 1980. There's no doubt that the early blues music was integral to rock and roll. Im talking about the modern version.
Does the Blues suck?
I've wondered about this briefly and realized: Modern blues is literally pop music on the blues scale. lyrics, almost as shitty. Instrumentation... OK, luckily there are no heavily electronic trends in modern blues yet. But if we're excluding blues rock, pretty much all I got is Tom Waits, and you may also wanna check out The Dirt Diary (I believe flagamuffin told me about him)-- he did a great cover of Waits' Gun Street Girl. E- In hindsight I'm an idiot, there is an absolute ocean of soul-wrenching, ground-shaking blues vocalists and musicians that aren't famous or don't write/release their own albums, like a black singer for their church. It's certainly not dead, I kinda convinced myself only blues rock was still thriving. Blues is no longer an exciting creative endeavor because it's natural routes of exploration are literally everything we have today. It has already evolved, and everyone trying to play the blues nowadays isn't trying to be a pioneer, they're takin the same ol', good ol' blues scale and riffing on their sufferings as identically as possible to the John Lee Hookers of a century past. Now blues rock may be a different story cause it blends into this massive world of rock and pop and alternative that can churn out a band from the White Stripes to Mumford and Sons or whatever. Bur over time uou're still gonna hear the same music-- just like pop -- though your dance might be a little groovier and your flannel a little checkered-er. Its all the same stuff in the end.
We had a convo about blues a few months ago and I don't think you brought up the whole post-1980 caveat? Like, how are you on Muddy and Albert Collins and whoever? I don't remember what you said and I'm sort of drunk. Submitted for your consideration, three random albums to be listened in full if you haven't already, http://www.allmusic.com/album/blak-and-blu-mw0002422753 http://www.allmusic.com/album/black-joe-lewis-and-the-honey-bears-mw0001318430 http://www.allmusic.com/album/keb-mo-mw0000114898 There's blues and then there's blues.
I think whether or not the blues has had innovation actually wraps into the way we think about genre. Modern blues music is specifically genre music that calls up the vocabulary and style of a genre that is past it's time - much like equally common occurrence of modern jazz bands playing old swing and bebop standards. The reality is that blues has had a tremendous amount of innovation, but that innovation has become attached to different movements and thus people stop considering it blues. Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, Cream, Jeff Beck, all blues musicians. The vocabulary, the solo-styles, the improvisation, the vocals. All blues. The Black Keys, Baptists, The Sheepdogs are the same. The blues gets a strange rep because it's just so foundational and familiar in western popular music and music history. This is easiest to see if we go back to the comparison with jazz music. Like I said, tons of jazz musicians play old standards, no innovation, but an homage and dialogue with the roots of their music that is essential in musical practice. If you look at jazz decade by decade as well, you see that it changes wildly, to the point where in the 80's and 90's huge 'jazz' bands were playing world tours with electric instruments, chord structures that had very little to do with old songbook progression, and way less improvisation aside from the presence of a solo section (Return to Forever, Weather Report, Snarky Puppyetc.). In fact, most periods of jazz have had their own name anyway: dixieland, swing, be-bop, hard bop, fusion, etc. Yet, because jazz has always been a bit of a fetishized and outlier genre, it was always called jazz. Indeed, if you're familiar with the discourse around jazz, you'd know that the name is a source of a lot of conversation and debate (what the hell is jazz?) - as early as the 40's, people like Duke Ellington were questioning the use of the title. So if we relate the jazz history to blues (two branches of the same family tree), you can see that where jazz was always reserved as a term for music from black traditions that favoured the virtuosity of the soloist, the artist and the development of musical forms; blues - as nowaypablo addressed - remained the name of the eldest form of a tradition from which grew american popular music. Modern blues is not innovative because it's not supposed to be innovative, it's period music. It doesn't get to become progressive blues, because rock took up the mantle and took away the name and title of the changing face of blues music. edit: formatting
I'll tell you a little secret about the Blues: it's not enough to know which notes to play, you have to know why they need to be played.
well...yeah. It does kind of suck, for the reasons you mentioned. I still appreciate it and even enjoy listening to it every once in a while at blues bars or wherever. Every song follows the same progression, solos are all in the same scale, there really isn't much in the songwriting. Its value, for me at least, comes from the fact that it's so simple. Blues is where i started as a musician and i'm sure a lot of others are in the same boat. You can pick up a guitar and play blues with people you've never met before. And i think music in general is valuable because it isn't exclusionary - everyone is invited to play and create and participate in this cool thing, and blues happens to be a genre that lends itself to that very well. So i enjoy the blues. I do think it sucks, but i enjoy it. the same way i enjoy certain punk, hip-hop, folk, etc. Songs like "You Are My Sunshine" and "This Land Is Your Land" are also objectively pretty bland and not innovative but they're still awesome because of what they accomplish beyond the song itself. My grandpa, the guy who taught me how to play bass, is really into blues. He was a gigging blues bassist for most of his life, and even now his entire record catalog is JUST blues. He listens to I IV V all day, every day. I appreciate blues but if i could never listen to anything else for the rest of my life I think i would literally go insane.
I've been to the Portland Blues festival three times, and it was before drinking age, so I know I didn't have booze-ears. (Maybe some secondhand-ganja-ears.) I think the blues are meant to be listened to live, because there's a lot of improvisation that goes on. Like folk music, new artists draw from the canon and often do covers, but unlike a lot of folk music, there's often layering of emotive guitar/harmonica/sax solos on top of the canonized groove. That groove comes as a function of the repetitive chorus. It's a shame that you're not asking for 60s or 70s blues, because that's basically all the blues I listen to! I'll not link Stevie Ray Vaughan, because you probably know his Some more traditional Mississippi blues: Some more modern blues:
There is a reason I'm not asking for 60's and 70's blues. I know that the blues music of the past was formative and hugely influential. I dig those old blues legends, I'm just not sure why I'd want to listen to modern Blues music. Seems like much of it is recycled musical masturbation. Hey, look at how well I can solo. Not hey, I have something to say here, something I can only express via my instrument. I'll check out your links. Heading to bed and just had a quick moment to reply. I appreciate your sharing them, thank you.
That makes sense! I guess I don't really listen to modern "pure blues," either. Those tracks I listed are bluesy tracks from groups that do other stuff as well.
Good question, I don't have an answer yet. There's a lot of content in this post from you all and I need to take my time with it. Time, is something I don't have a lot of. Therefore, allow me to get back to you with an answer after the christmas break. I will have time off to listen then. I look forward to it.... but I suspect that the blues, as it is currently, sucks by my estimation. I go in to this biased, no doubt. I'll attempt an open mind when I sit down and wade through all of your cases.
Disclaimer: I am by no means a blues expert. I am basing my answer off what I understand blues to be, not what it may technically be. Alright, so a little under two months ago, I posted this weekly DJ. You were shouted out to in the comments and unfortunately never replied. No matter. They are probably the closest to blues I listen to, and this would probably be the best example of the bluesiest song they have: With that being said, all of their music contains elements of blues, horns, a strong bass, etc. Not every song of theirs has strong blues elements like the one I posted. But still, don't give up on (what I understand to be) modern blues. There is hope. Still, if it isn't the blues you're looking for, please for the love of Hubski, listen to this album the whole way through. It is one of my favorite albums. I can listen to it the whole way through no sweat. Enjoy it.
Well the Blues is golden oldies for sure, but I don't think it all sucks. New rock generally sucks because it's got no soul. Pretty much the same as blues but without interesting or genuine sentiment. Buddy Guy - Stay All Night 2001
Robert Cray - Bad Influence album release 1983
He did a cover album in the last decade, all great songs that merited a new look.
I've listened to this too many times to count.
Hell, how about some nasty Marvin Sease.
I'd say the blues has seen better days but I think like folk, old time, doo wap and country (old school) there is still cause to make and listen to the music.
I'm not too familiar with modern blues. Bluesy rock like the Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, some Whites Stripes can be pretty awesome. The important thing about the blues is it's like the grandfather of all modern american music, even country. I can listen to some Leadbelly or Robert Johnson, it's really not my favorite, but from those simple songs sung by poor black folks branched and mutated into rock, R&B, country and rap. Does modern blues suck? I don't know. Probably. It's not exactly a hotbed of innovation driven by popularity. Is Stevie Ray Vaughn blues? He's been dead over 20 years but he's pretty awesome.
jonaswildman, this is posted for you as much as it is for me. We shall see if any brave souls have an answer. I hope they do!