Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
The blues is not just a genre. It is the mold from which much of Western popular music of the 20th century was cast. It grew out of the poverty of the Mississippi cotton fields at the end of the 19th century, as resistance and as expression for African Americans.
From jazz to rock and roll, from soul to hip-hop, its structures and its feeling still run through our ears. To understand the blues is to go back to the source of a cry turned into art.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2Cotton fields, hollers, and 12 bars
- 3Robert Johnson and the myth of the Delta
- 4Chicago: the blues goes electric
- 5From B.B. King to sampling
Open-book quiz9 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary20 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
