During the 1800s, African Americans worked long days in the fields of the American South. They sang songs that they had brought from Africa while working. One person sang www.17jiaoyu.coma line. Then a group of workers repeated it. The song’s words told of the hardships(艰苦) that people suffered. They clapped their hands and stomped(跺) their feet to the music.
In the 1860s, the music changed greatly. African American music took new forms. It was also influenced by dance music, which had great rhythm(节奏). Banjos(班卓琴) became popular. A blues singer usually swww.17jiaoyu.comang a line and then played the banjo in reply. By the early 1900s, the guitar had taken the place of the banjo in the blues music.
The blues music has many obvious characteristics. One of them is that the musical notes are often “bent”. That is, they are changed slightly to give a song more strength.
Lyrics are the words of a song. Blues lyrics describe everyday life. The lyrics are often about the relationships between men and women. They tell about sadness and overwork. They tell about finding and losing love, having money or being poor, being happy or sad and lonely. They almost always use the rhythms of everyday speech. A group of blues lyrics usually has three lines. The second line repeats the first line. The third line has different words.
By the 1940s, large numbers of African www.17jiaoyu.comAmericans moved to Chicago. There, a new kind of “Chicago” blues began. The new music was excellent dance music. Chicagwww.17jiaoyu.como blues led to the birth of a new music style -rock and roll.