Paper Topic:

Blues versus Jazz

I . Introduction

Blues and Jazz are both very popular genres of music spanning almost a century of culture , aesthetics and spirituality . As the blues and jazz are horribly interrelated , this will try to differentiate the two great genres of music

A . What is Blues

Per definition , blues is the name given to both musical form and genre of blues . First coined by the African-American communities in the South of the United States of America by the end of the 19th Century , Blues was inspired by spirituality , work song , field hollers and

chants- licated narrative ballads that rhymes . Its form is defined by the use of specific chord progressions- the most common being the twelve-bar blues chord and the singing is for stimulating purposes at slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale . Blues can be divided in several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues to electric blues to blues rock to punk blues . The term the blues ' refers to melancholy and sadness . The blues lyrics often refers to depressed mood as it embodies the African laborer , whose hardships and spirit is wed to the songs

B . What is Jazz

In contrast , Jazz sprung from the confluence of African and European music traditions . The African heritage evident in the use of blues notes , improvisation , polyrythms , syncopation and the swung note . The term jazz ' originated from a West Coast slang term and first used to refer to music in Chicago . Jazz has spawned plenty of genres from New Orleans...

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