-
Minstrel Shows Become Popular
https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/online_classroom/shaping_the_constitution/doc/minstrel_poster#:~:text=Minstrel%20shows%20developed%20in%20the%201840s%20and%20continued,popular%20with%20both%20white%20and%20African%20American%20audiences.
A form of entertainment for both whites and blacks. They were mostly white men acting as black man and included comic skits, dance and music. -
Period: to
The History of the Blues
-
Civil War Begins
The first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina -
Emancipation Proclomation
Abe Lincoln frees the slaves. Slaves started working on share crops. -
Slave Songs Published
Also called work songs these were pieces of music of songs sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task. The first published Slave songs of the United States are the earliest collections of African American Spirituals.
https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197495/ -
Juke Joints were Established
Juke joints were places were blacks went to listen to music, dance, and have fun after work. -
The Blues Emerge
The blues emerged towards the end of the 19th century. The early style of blues was called the country blues. This was usually one singer with a guitar or piano. -
Scott Joplin's Maple TIme Rag
The new music, which blended march tempos, minstrel-show songs, and the "ragged" or syncopated rhythms, was percolating throughout the Midwest wherever African-American musicians gathered. St. Louis and Chicago, with its World's Fair, were magnets for musicians experimenting with new styles.
http://music.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/9905_ragtime/index.shtml -
First Recording of Black Music
"Camp Meeting Shouts.", published by the Victor Records, is the first known actual recording of black music. -
W.C. Handy
Known as Father of the Blues, got his inspiration from a bluesman playing guitar with a knife at a train station in Mississippi. Even though blues music was around since the slaves came to the Americas, he developed the 12 bar format. -
FIrst Blues song published
The first blues song was published. It was Antonio Maggio's 'I got the Blues' -
The Great Migration
Many African Americans left the South and headed North. They left to escape the Jim Crow laws. They brought their musical traditions to Kansas CIty, Chicago and Detroit. -
First blues songs are published as sheet music
The first blues songs, including W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues", are published as sheet music. Handy was publishing adaptations of blues songs. Eventually, he reached a national and international audience. -
"St. Louis Blues"
This song was written and composed by Handy. This was one of his most popular songs and has been recorded by hundredes of artists. -
"Crazy Blues" Sells one million copies
Mamie Smith is the first African American Vocalist to record a song. "Crazy Blues" sells over a million copies in the first year putting the blue on the map. -
Blues Music Popularity Spreads
Victor and Columbia Records begin issuing the first discs of music recorded electrically with a microphone. The invention made it easier to record and music and for people to listen. Sperading the popularity of the bulues.
