The Birth of the Blues
It is practically impossible to ascribe a specific person to the development of the blues. In fact, the lonely, sad, and weary songs sprung up everywhere, particularly in the Southern states. According to Eileen Southern, in her book, The Music of Black Americans, W. C. Handy was the first to popularize the genre in 1903 (Southern 1997, 332). Even still, her account points to Handy having heard a man singing a song in a Mississippi train station.
Call-and-response and repetition are essential blues characteristics that highlight critical retentions from African music through the centuries. Both can be seen in 1925 performance of Handy's "St. Louis Blues" by the renowned Bessie Smith:
Bessie Smith - St. Louis Blues, 1925 [ 00:00-00:00 ]
Additionally, the blues are built on a scale that has a flattened third, fifth, and seventh scale degrees, as in the following example:
The blues and spirituals grew up together; the only thing that differentiated them in the beginning was the text, though later on they diverged.
Bo-Weavil Blues
Hey, bo-weavil, don't sing the blues no more
Hey, hey, bo-weavil, don't sing the blues no more
Bo-weavil's here, bo-weavil's everywhere you go
The St. Louis Blues
I got them Saint Louis Blues
just as blue as I can be
He's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me