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Minstrel Shows Gain Popularity
The minstrel show, with its blackface performers, crude racial caricatures, and the song "Jump Jim Crow" becomes part of American popular culture. -
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Blues Music
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Field Holler
Field hollering is a work song that dates back to when there was African Slavery. During their work they would do a call and response to communicate with one another or to vent out any feelings. -
Slaves Songs Published
Slave songs of the United States, the earliest collection of African'American spirituals, is published. -
First Documented Blues Song
WC Handy, known as ¨the father of blues,¨ published his first song ¨Mr. Crump¨ in September 1912. It was later named Memphis Blues. -
Blues Songs Were Strictly Instrumental
Throughout the 1910s, all blues songs were purely instrumentals. -
The Great Migration
The Great Migration was a movement where six million African-Americans left the south and moved all the way to the North and mid west. They left their lives as slaves to have a better life and they brought Blues music with them. -
Blues Were No Longer Instrumentals
With the the release of Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" in 1920, blues songs were no longer purely instrumental. Mamie Smith's recording caused a sensation and encouraged record companies to seek out other similar singers.Things changed almost overnight with her release. -
Folk Blues Debuts
Ralph Peer, the famous artist and repertory man for Okeh and Victor Records, makes his first field recordings in Atlanta, Georgia, marking the recording debut of both the folk blues and what would later be called country music. -
North Bound Blues
Maggie Jones is an American singer and pianist who sang North Bound Blues which was the earliest example of songs that reference the Jim Crow Laws. The song was unique because female blues singers usually didn't mention the Jim Crow Laws which is what made it popular. -
Great Depression Hits
The Wall Street crash of 1929 begins on Black Thursday marking the beginning of the Great Depression in the United States. Amid widespread economic ruin, sales of records and phonographs plummet, crippling the recording industry. -
Electric Guitar Introduced
Eddie Durham records the first music featuring the electric guitar. The modern instrument, first developed by musician George Beauchamp and engineer Adolph Rickenbacher in the early 1930s, will help to transform the sound of the blues. -
Muddy Waters and Chicago Blues
Muddy Waters makes his first Chicago recordings, beginning his tenure as the dominant figure in the Chicago Blues and a key link between the Mississippi Delta and the urban styles. -
British Invasion
The first US tour by the Rolling Stones marks the invasion of British blues rock bands. -
BB King
BB King is known as the "King of Blues" because he helped define the blues to a worldwide audience. His first break started in 1948 when he performed his song "Sonny Boy Williamson". Over the years, BB has developed one of the world’s most identifiable guitar styles. He was put into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. -
"Year of the Blues" Declared
Congress declares 2003 the "Year of the Blues," commemorating the 100th anniversary of W.C. Handy's encounter with an unknown early bluesman at a train station in Mississippi.
