Blues Music History Timeline up52

20th Century

BLUES HISTORY TIMELINE: Pre-

1860s

1870s

Spiritual s

1880s

1890s Ragtime is “Pop”

Pre-1776 slavery to Emancipation (1865)

public lynching

Civil War 186165

guitars in South

90% of Delta underdeveloped

Clearin g Delta

Settlement Growth in the Mississippi Delta

1900s

1910s

Blind Lemon Jefferson Texas blues movement

Black Codes (1800-1866)

recordings available Jim Crow Segregation Laws (1876-1965)

1940s Alan Lomax etc inventory Mississippi culture (Muddy Waters) 1950 “Bluesman” term coined by white folklorists Muddy Waters (1913-1983) 1950 Chess Records, Chicago 1953 Muddy’s Best Band

1920s

1930s

Great Migration (from South, Urbanization) Blues Queens Surge in Black tour the South Blues, but not evangelical 1903 Handy’s from revival causes Delta story, Mississippi split blues is now cutting edge 1909: First Robert Early on, not an old “Blues” Johnson women throwback records (1936backed by Jazz published 37) 1924: Clara RJ: Me and the Blues “pop” Smith, Devil Blues industry “Sold Soul to (1937) Devil” 1914: WC Son House Lost Urban Handy. “St recordings Generation Louis Blues” (1930) for Church community, guitar is the “Devil’s Instrument” Men record 1912: Memphis “Blues” term Blues country blues used (sheet music) (1925-26) Blues is the soundtrack to the Exodus Mami Smith, Cotton prices fall, see Great Crazy Blues Migration (1920) first Robert Johnson (1911-1938)

New Orleans Jazz

BLJ: 12 Bar: 100 tracks recorded (1926-29)

1960s Black cultural nationalism - End Rock and Roll 1970 White audience for blues