ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Everyone in the world feels sad from time to time.

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It's completely normal. [Girl feeling sad]

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But everyone tends to deal with this sadness in a different way...

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Some people might cry into their pillows for an hour... [Girl crying in her bed]

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Others might exercise extra-hard to get their mind off of whatever's making them sad…

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While some people might shovel as much ice cream into their face as they possibly can. [Girl eats ice cream]

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And yes, by "some people," we mean…us.

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But another response to feeling sad is to sing about it... most notably, in a genre

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of music called “The Blues.” [Coop discussing the blues music]

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So what do we know about the blues?

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Well, for starters, it became popular after slavery ended in the late 1800s. [Slaves working in a crop field]

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And that's because it's connected to the Deep South and was heard primarily in African-American

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communities. [African American man playing a harmonica]

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Think of it sort of like a blend between African music and folk music.

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While you're probably already familiar with what the blues might sound like, it does have

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a few key features..

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Most notably, the lyrics are often repeated.

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For instance, the famous blues song “Kansas City” begins with the first line... [A musical sheet of Kansas City song]

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“I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come” and then the second line is... the

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exact same as the first.

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Another notable feature of blues songs is that they often feature what's known as “call [A red telephone rings and person picks up]

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and response.”

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This is when the singer says one thing, and then another singer replies.

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Or, in the case of blues, it could be an instrument replying instead. [Musical lyrics come out of saxophone]

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As for the name, the blues might be called the blues because of “blue notes” which

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are flat sounding notes found in many blues songs that tend to sound kind of sad. [Blue notes float in the air from a record player]

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Listen to this lick of music, and pay attention to this highlighted note…

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...hear how it sounds sad?

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Yup!

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That's what it's called The Blues!

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And you might be thinking, "I've never heard of this kind of music before!

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That makes me sad!" [Girl is upset in class]

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To which we reply, "Write a blues song about it!"

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But also, even if you don't listen to the blues, you probably do listen to music that's [Girl listening to music on a bus]

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been influenced by it.

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Famous musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Bob Dylan all took

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influences from the blues, who in turn went on to influence many more artists.

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All because of the blues.

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That's some news that doesn't give us the blues.

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Lastly, if you want to put together your own blues band, you'd most certainly need guitar,

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bass and drums. [Guitar, bass and drum set appear]

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And if you really wanted to go all out, then a keyboard, some type of horn, and a harmonica

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wouldn't hurt either.

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Then all that's left to do is figure out what's making you sad, write some lyrics about it, [House of Cards buffering on a TV screen]

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and voila, you're singing the blues, baby.

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Heck, you could even write out about how cruddy your school's cafeteria food is. [Girl writing a blue's song]

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Though if soggy pizza is the saddest thing in your life right now, well, you've got it

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pretty darn good.

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