Who invented the blues?

[magicbeatle]

surely the person who invented the modern tuned guitar invented the blues, what do you think?

[Mattk]

wasnt it invented by slaves on chain gangs ?

[andy hughes]

Musical genres are not 'invented', they evolve over time. As advised by Mattk, blues music originated among the slaves in the American South who sang religious songs and spirituals to keep their spirits up, but also sang sad songs to reflect the pain and misery of their situation.

Because sadness, usually rmoantic sadness, is a fact of almost everyone's life, blues music has a common chord of expression that menas something to everyone.

It's evolution continues today - probably the modern descendent of the blues is rap and hip-hop - expressing the disenfranchisement of urban youth - mostly black youth - in their society.

[AndrewHunt]

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The tuned guitar has been knocking around in various forms since the middle ages.

Blues evolved from the Gospel and work songs sung by slaves in the cotton fields of America.

Now write it out 100 times!