by Katelyn Wescoat

Created on: April 22, 2009

The first time I heard the blues, I had to turn off the record. As a young teenager, I'd never heard anything like it. The pain, longing, and suffering expressed through each and every note that was sang or played hit me like nothing else I'd ever heard before. I believe that first blues record I listened to, alone in the privacy of my bedroom, was either Charley Patton or Robert Johnson. After semi-recovering from those first waves of such intense emotions, I turned the record back on, and listened, very intently...

No, the blues won't ever be a doomed music genre as long as there is human pain and suffering. As a musician, I've become a bit biased. Anyone who doesn't appreciate the blues or jazz, I kind of tend to look down upon. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you have to always, constantly play straight, pure, unadulterated blues or jazz...but in my book, I tend respect those who understand and appreciate the quality of those two highly intense and emotional types of music.

"The blues came over on a ship," as B. B. King has said. It all started with African slaves that were brought over to the Americas. Somehow, it eventually evolved after being preserved through the oral tradition into what we now call "the blues."

Blues is a not a doomed musical genre. The blues have thrived, persisted, and continued to grow over the years. Any style of music that's so powerful you must shut it off will persist, no matter what many may say. It will continue to reach and pull others in for years and years to come, just as it did to a young, teen aged girl, not quite so long ago.

Blues may not be the preferred music of the young album buyers and concert goers of today, but that does not necessarily make it a doomed musical genre. As stated before, the blues, or some variation or early form of it, has already managed to survive several hundred years. Look at how the young, (well, then young) British rockers and blues musicians helped to re-popularize the blues in America, ironically enough. Another wonderful example is myself. I am sixteen years old, and am truly, absolutely, and positively in love with what is called the blues. From the day I first heard, to right now, this very moment, I will continue to believe that the blues will continue to thrive and grow, no matter the popular opinion, or the latest trend. It is such a pure, unadulterated, and passionate music that it will touch all those who come into contact with it.

References: "Deep Blues" Robert Palmer, "Why I Sing the Blues" B. B. King.

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