Blues-rock

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Blues-rock
Stylistic origins:	Blues and Rock & Roll
Cultural origins:	1960s in England and America
Typical instruments:	Guitar, Bass guitar, Drums, Vocals, Keyboards,
Mainstream popularity:	Greatest popularity in 1960s and 1970s, but still popular

Blues-rock, is a hybrid musical genre combining elements of the blues with rock and roll, with an emphasis on the electric guitar. It began to develop as a particular style in the mid-1960s in England and the United States through the work of bands such as Cream and The Rolling Stones, who experimented with music from the old bluesmen like Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters.

1 Characteristics
- 1.1 Instrumentation
- 1.2 Structure
2 History
3 Sample Artists
4 References

[edit] Characteristics

Blues-rock is characterized by bluesy improvisation, the 12-bar blues, extended boogie jams typically focused on the electric guitar player and often a heavier, riff-oriented sound and feel to the songs than might be found in traditional Chicago-style blues. It is also often played at a fast tempo, another distinction from blues.^[1]

[edit] Instrumentation

Central to blues-rock are the electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit. Vocals also typically play a key role, although this is not always true, considering the number of instrumental blues-rock pieces. Keyboard, piano and organ are also occasionally used. The guitar is generally characterized by distortion, separating blues-rock from traditional blues, in which the acoustic guitar is standard. Often two guitars are played, one playing the accompaniment and one playing the lead.

[edit] Structure

Minor pentatonic blues scale on A

Blues-rock pieces normally follow the 12-bar blues structure, but often follow a slightly different structure, as seen in the Allman Brothers Band song "Stormy Monday", which follows the general format of a 12-bar blues, but with altered chords, playing...

G⁹ | C⁹ | G⁹ | G⁹ | C⁹ | C⁹ | G⁹ / A minor⁷ | B minor⁷ / B♭⁷ | A minor⁷ | A♭ major⁷ | G⁹ / C⁹ | G⁹ / D augmented

...instead of the expected G | C | G | G | C | C | G | G | D | C | G | G (D) progression. The progression is usually repeated, with only one section of the song, though there are exceptions, some pieces having a "B" section. The key is traditionally major, but can also be minor, a common technique being the use the minor pentatonic scale over a major chord progression, as employed by Albert King in nearly all of his pieces. The lead guitar typically uses the pentatonic scale, either major or minor, when soloing.

A classic example of blues-rock is Cream's "Crossroads", adapted from Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues" and "Traveling Riverside Blues"; it fuses some of the lyrical and musical styles of blues with rock-styled tempo and guitar solos.

The first two bars of the guitar part to "Stormy Monday" by the Allman Brothers

[edit] History

While rock and blues have historically always been closely linked, blues-rock as a distinct genre did not arise until the late 1960s. The genre was originally British, with artists like Alexis Korner and John Mayall forming groups that acted as a training ground for future stars of the genre such as Free, Savoy Brown and the earliest incarnations of Fleetwood Mac, while American players like Johnny Winter, Paul Butterfield and the group Canned Heat were also pioneers. The revolutionary electric blues playing of Jimi Hendrix (a veteran of many American rhythm & blues and soul groups from the early-mid 1960s) and his power trios, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys, has had broad and lasting influence on the development of blues-rock, especially for guitarists.

Eric Clapton was another guitarist with a lasting influence on the genre; his work in the 1960s and 1970s with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds, the supergroup Blind Faith, Cream, Derek and the Dominos and an extensive solo career have all been seminal in bringing of blues-rock into the mainstream.

In the late 60s Jeff Beck, another former member of The Yardbirds, revolutionised blues rock into a form of heavy rock, taking the UK and the USA by storm with his band, The Jeff Beck Group. Jimmy Page, a third alumnus of The Yardbirds, went out to form The New Yardbirds which would soon become known as Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin was a huge force in the early 70s blues-rock scene. Other blues-rock musicians influential on the English scene of the 1970s included Rory Gallagher (who was actually Irish) and Robin Trower.

Beginning in the early 1970s, American blues-rock grew to include Southern rock and hard rock bands like the Allman Brothers Band, the James Gang, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and ZZ Top, while - except for the advent of groups such as Foghat (founded by former Savoy Brown members) - the British scene became focused on heavy metal innovation. Blues-rock had a re-birth in the early 1990s and continues to have lasting influence today, with many artists such as John Mayer, The White Stripes, The Black Keys, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Joe Bonamassa performing and releasing albums to enthusiastic fans.