Welcome back. A few years later, between the first World War and World War II, technology advanced greatly. Radio became a mass medium that even rural families adopted. Phonographs became much more affordable, and records were easier to find and buy. This caused music to grow in popularity but its appeal was still largely regional. Now this may sound stereotypical and I hate to be stereotypical, but in a broad sense, poor southern blacks listen to blues, wealthier blacks in the city listen to jazz, rural whites listen to country and blue grass while urban whites listen to popular music or classical. Record companies and radio stations, mostly tried to appeal to one race or the other. The other thing that was going on in this period is that millions of people migrated from the rural south to cities up north. The reasons were many, the devastating Mississippi River flood of 1927 was one, and the Great Depression in the United States were two major loss. We will talk more about this migration from south to north next week. As they moved, these migrants brought their music and their traditions from the south to the cities up north. And slowly but surely, the music industry and radio stations began to take note of that. And they began to target these new audiences. The record companies weren't particularly kind in their use of terms for the classifications of records they began to produce for these audiences. Race music and Hillbilly music were the terms they chose to use to classify and advertise the southern music of the early 1900s. Political correctness obviously was not an issue. We need to understand that as I said before, the United States was still and extremely segregated and basically intolerant country during the years we are discussing. Blacks and whites did not really associate with one another, socialize I should say. Blacks were treated as inferior citizens and whites who lived in the cities looked down upon the whites who lived in rural areas and considered them to be stupid Hillbillies. So record companies called the music targeted at these audiences exactly that, race and Hillbilly. The other thing is that it was virtually unheard of, for the audience of one genre to become a customer of the others. That's why Maple Leaf Rag was important. Now, race music is recordings by African Americans for sale to African American listeners. Blues was a prime example of race music, but various musical styles such as jazz, gospel, Jump blues and Boogie-woogie also belong to that category. We'll talk more about them later today, or later this week. Some musical traits of race music are these were work songs at the beginning. They were folk songs for black people. Some of them probably came to America on slave ships. Race music grew out of spirituals which were religious songs, and from what were called field hollers. And a field holler is a call and response type song that was sung by slaves working in the fields or perhaps people rowing below ship on a slave ship. They featured vocality, which is special vocal effects, sometimes guttural, and they also featured improvisation. Improvisation is music or lyrics that are made up on the spot, often based on a feeling. Now, if we talk about Blues, the earliest evolution of the blue is actually lost to history. We don't really know where and how it started. But here are some of the known facts as far as the 20th century is concerned. It was and is a genre of music that conveys deep feelings and that is fairly rare. The songs usually have gritty vocals, and often employee a speech-like rhythm with inflection that is quite expressive. As for the evolution of the Blues, we will discuss this at length next week, but there were three eras. The Folk/Country Blues of the teens and 20s, that is 1910s and 1920s. The Classic Blues of the 30s and 40s. And the electric blues of the 1950s which later contributed a lot to what's called Rhythm and Blues. And Rhythm and Blues includes Soul and Doo-Wop and black music in general. Most popular early Blues musicians were female singers. Isn't that fascinating? So in the 20s and 30s most of the most popular ones were women. Ma Rainey and Mamie Smith were among the first we know of. Ma Rainey was born in 1886 in Columbus, Georgia, and even though she recorded about a hundred sides during a five year period, few of those survived. But she was extremely influential on the next generation of artist. Now, Ma Rainey was nicknamed the Mother of the Blues, and she was known for a moaning style of singing and also for excellent phrasing of lyrics. Here is her Lost Wandering Blues from 1923. [MUSIC] This one recorded in 1925, became one of the most popular blues songs of all time with well over a hundred versions recorded by some of the greatest artists over the years. In the rock and roll genre, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels did a version of See See Rider in 1965, as part of a medley. And The Animals made it a number 10 hit in 1966. And I believe that was the last single recorded before The Animals disbanded. Now, by the way See See Rider is really kind of just changing the words for an easy rider and an easy rider was someone who was promiscuous. [MUSIC] Bessie Smith is possibly the very first really popular race music artist, selling nearly 800,000 records. And also the most important and influential of the female blues singers from the early 20th century. Stylistically, she was a blues singer with a majestic voice. I would suggest you remember her nickname, Empress of the Blues. Nicknames make great exam questions. Now, the song we're gonna hear by Bessie Smith was actually written by WC Handy, St. Louis Blues, and we're going to meet WC Handy in detail next week. [MUSIC] In the next video, we will talk about Risque Blues, also sometimes called Hokum Blues. That is songs with very suggestive lyrics. See you then.
