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Rock & Roll Origins

Feb 20, 2025, 6 min read

Day 1

Day 2

Quote

“The Blues had a baby, and they called it rock and roll” - Muddy Waters

Rhythm & Blues, 1940s-1950s

  • R&B is the culmination/commercialization of all the Black Music we discussed on Day 1
  • “Race Music”
    • This is what the culmination of Black Music was denoted as previously
    • Black Music, produced by Black Artists, for the Black Community
    • “Race Records” 1945-1949
      • R&B songs were listed as “Race Records”
      • Intended to signal this is Black Music for Black Audiences by Black Performers
    • Jerry Wexler - 1917-2008
      • Worked for Billboard magazine in 1949
      • Decided there’s really no reason for it to be “Race Music”
      • “Race Music” becomes “Rhythm & Blues” in 1949
      • Jerry Wexler coined the term Rhythm & Blues
      • This music was becoming less of a southern style, as more African Americans move to northern cities
      • Made it more likely that Whites would buy the records
    • Wexler responded to what is known as The Great Migration, which occurred around each World War around 1916-1930
      • Many African Americans migrated from the Southern states up into Northern states and cities
      • Labor recruiters encouraged African Americans to move North during both World Wars to fill factory jobs
      • 500,00- came North in WW1, 1.5 million in WWII
      • Moved to major cities like Chicago, St. Louis, NY, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, and Indianapolis
      • Total of about 6 million people between 1915-1970
      • Sought higher wages and freedom from Jim Crow laws
      • A concentrated rural Southern ‘race” market now became national, and available to white audiences
  • Jump Blues
    • Up tempo blues form
    • Blended jazz and swing
    • Relied on brass instruments, especially the saxophone
    • Rooted in vernacular language, humor, sex
    • Urbane style of new urban black middle class
    • Louis Jordan - 1908-1975
    • This is the music of the new middle class black community that had migrated North
  • Doo-Wop
    • Bill Kenny & The Ink Spots (If I Didn’t Care)
    • Romantic and idealistic
    • Closer to white pop music of the time
    • Adolescent longing and loss
    • Oriented around acapella, street corner, barbershop aesthetic
    • Emphasized vocals rather than backbeat of jump blues
  • Swing

The Chitlin’ Circuit

The clubs, juke joints, restaurants, everything in between. These were all very important places for the transmission of R&B music.

  • Origins
    • The Chitlin’ Circuit is a result of the fact that Black artists had to perform in segregated locations. This prevented them from performing in certain venues, especially in the south
    • The Green Book
      • Black Americans in 1930s-1940s used this as a travel guide of the best cities they could go to around the country. Tells you where you could go without running into issues due to segregation and racism
    • The circuit is named after “Soul Food”, the type of food you’d find in those locations
    • Another circuit in the Northeast is the “Borscht Belt”, its essentially the same type of thing for Jewish people
  • Venues
    • The Victory Grill, Austin TX - one of the few places you can still visit. It’s a diner/restaurant but still put on music
    • The Rhythm Club, Natchez MS
      • The site of one of the worst catastrophes in music
      • A fire killed 209 people, including Walter Barnes and 9 members of his band
      • Still the 4th worst nightclub fire in American history
      • April 23, 1940
    • Regal Theater, Chicago
    • Howard Theater, DC
    • The Uptown in Philadelphia
    • The Apollo Theater in NYC
    • These are the “big” venues
    • Indiana Avenue, Indianapolis

Delta Blues

Comes from the Mississippi Delta, travels North up to Chicago and the Midwest. It evolves into the Chicago Blues below.

  • The Delta
    • Mississippi Delta is the floodplain that runs along the Western Mississippi, between Mississippi River and the Yazoo River
    • 4-5 Million Acres
    • Little settlement and agriculture before the Civil War
    • 90% undeveloped, and covered in vines and trees
    • Large scale lumber industry clears the land after the Civil War
    • 2/3 black labor force, who then begin cotton farming
    • This first generation was quickly i heavy debt
    • Replaced by major plantations
    • Become sharecroppers or wage labor
  • Delta Blues
    • A lot of the recordings we have were recorded during the Great Depression
    • Charley Patton - 1891-1934
      • Taught many other Delta Blues musicians
      • Was a sharecropper on the Dockery Farm
      • Key to developing the Delta Blues style
    • Born of the sharecropper plantation life
    • Robert Johnson - 1911-1938
      • The most popularly famous Delta Blues musician
      • Had a large influence with his short time
    • Delta Blues seems to be about the voice and the guitar and not much else
    • People like Patton and Johnson taught a bunch of people their craft
      • Muddy Waters, BB King…
      • This generation brought the Delta Blues to a broader audience
  • Moving North
    • A lot of the people who knew the Delta Blues moved north during the Great Migration
    • Many of them started a new life in Chicago after the first World War
    • Chicago gains a new vibrant Black community stemming from the Delta

Chicago Blues

  • Life in Chicago
    • It was better than the plantations but still not awesome
  • The Electric Blues
    • The Delta Blues were too “quiet” for the streets of Chicago
    • In order to properly play in Chicago, they had to amplify and electrify their instruments
    • The acoustic Delta Blues became more electric in Chicago
    • Muddy Waters moved from an acoustic sound to electric
    • 1951 was when the Fender electric guitar became much more accessible
      • This became the mainstay of Chicago Blues players
      • A bass guitar was also made in 1951, so more backup instrumentalists were added
  • Chess Records
    • Leonard Chess - 1917-1969
    • Marshall Chess - 1942-
    • Phil Chess - 1921-2016
    • The Chess brothers started an independent record label “Chess Records”
    • These record labels became the big thing for Chicago Blues artists
  • The Artists
    • Right before Rock and Roll were these Electric Blues artists
    • Little Walter
      • Amplified harmonica sound which became a mainstay of electric blues
    • Muddy Waters
    • Howlin’ Wolf
      • Influential on British children like…Mick Jagger. All the kids who would grow up to create British Rock and Roll

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