Blues vs. Contemporary Country Pop

Blues vs. Contemporary Country Pop

People write music to express emotion to an audience and get a message across via the structure of their genre. Blues music is a genre originated from African-American communities in the South towards the end of the 19th century. This genre was composed through spirituals, work songs, call and response, and simple ballads. An example of a blues song is “She’s Dynamite” by B.B. King. Contemporary country music is a more modern take on the typical country genre. This genre infused the typical image of country with pop aspects. An example of contemporary country pop is “Can’t Say No” by the group Dan + Shay. This paper explores the differences in two music genres regarding historical influences, lyrics, song structure, and interpretation. The two genres that are being compared are the blues and contemporary country pop. As we look into these genres there will be several similarities but also many differences in regards to their multiple aspects. B.B. King and Dan + Shay use a combination of lyrics and instrumentation to create a tone to express similar emotions within their different genres.

Everything always has a place of origin. For this topic specifically, Blues was a type of genre that originated in a different way. This genre was built off of slavery and troubles of slavery. Singing was some slaves’ way of getting through the day (Ridley, 2006).Blues was most popular with African American women. During this time period women’s rights were not valued and so they expressed their feelings toward this topic through their music, hence the name blues. All blues songs don’t pertain to sadness though. Songs of blues can be about anything, mostly troubling or everyday things people were going through (Johnson, M.V., 2004). Although topics like these were very popular in the blues genre, they can be showed in any genre. Contemporary country pop was more of a genre that was brought up by combining two other genres and improvising...