Music of today possesses roots in Delta blues

Editor's note: This is the first in a series exploring the black roots of music. This article focuses on blues music.

Few people get through life without being asked the question "What kind of music do you listen to?" at least 5 million times.

Most people simplify their responses by saying something like, "Oh, you know, everything." Or, "A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Kind of a general mix." Some go so far as to specify that their music collections are "diverse" or "varying."

There is an even better simplification: If you listen to any kind of American music, any kind at all, just say you listen to music that is rooted in blues.

That is not to say that there is anything blues-y about all modern pop and rock music, but rather, they are based on styles that are based on styles that are ultimately based in the blues.

"Almost all the music that has drifted into popularity in the United States owes its existence to the blues," said William Kelly, professor of integrative arts. "The blues, it's underneath almost everything."

Although direct blues influences are not as evident in many areas of modern rock as they have been in the past, the blues still lurks somewhere beneath all popular music, Kelly said.

Kelly teaches Integrative Arts 15, a course in the history of popular arts in America, in which several weeks are devoted to the blues.

"R&B music and rock 'n' roll music is very clearly based on the blues, but so is almost all the music we've got," he said, clarifying that country and pop are both heavily blues-based genres. "Ultimately, it almost all works its way back to the Mississippi Delta."

Modern popular music, however, is relatively far-removed from rock's origins, and many listeners may not know the blues history behind the rock 'n' roll.

Lack of awareness of musical roots adversely affects the quality of popular music today, said Tonya Browne, lead singer for local blues outfit Queen Bee and the Blue Hornet Band.

"It definitely affects the quality of music coming out," Browne said. "I blame radio -- just the money makes the scope of what's available really small," she said, explaining that it is not lucrative for radio stations and record companies to promote music that would educate people in the history of rock 'n' roll.

Popularizing pure blues in order to inform people about it in a historical sense might be a positive thing, Browne said, but for the most part, some music fans just aren't passionate enough to be interested.

"I think on one hand, it might open people up to different areas of music," she said. "There's some people that just aren't into music."

Tom Poole, program head of WPSU's Saturday night show "The Blues," and acting deputy vice provost for educational equity, said he agrees that modern rock is further removed from the blues than other periods of rock have been.

"I'm not sure the contemporary rock scene is quite the same as it was in the '50s and '60s, when blues styles dominated rock 'n' roll," Poole said. "A lot of (grunge and rap) doesn't seem to be as rooted as former periods of rock had been."

Another aspect of the blues that has been overshadowed by tangents and misconceptions is the fact that it is rooted in African American culture.

"It's definitely a backtrack to Africa," said Josh Ferko, manager of Arboria Records, 119 E. Beaver Ave. "It's an African American thing. White guys can only approximate it."

In the 1930s, most black blues singers in the Mississippi Delta were unable to record much material because many record companies had policies against working with black artists.

In addition, the commercial success enjoyed by Elvis Presley can be attributed to the quality of the songs he covered from black blues artists who were not able to get their own recording and promotion contracts in the '50s.

Today, many white blues artists such as Eric Clapton, Z.Z. Top and Stevie Ray Vaughn are playing music that, although it sounds blues-y, is blues more in label than in purity.

"I don't really see Clapton as all that much of a blues person," Poole said. "Because of a preponderance of white blues artists today, people might assume that it was always that way. That is not the case."

Ferko said he thinks the watered-down blues artists such as Clapton become popular with audiences that aren't very concerned with musical purity, but rather want to hear something that just sounds blues-y without presenting a challenge.

"Every generation has a white blues guy that gets people thinking they like the blues," Ferko said, listing Clapton, Vaughn, newer artist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and '60s singer Johnny Winter among them. "Most people want something to just sound blues-y."

But regardless of how popular pseudo-blues artists become, there will always be fans that dig for the roots and traditions of the music.

"There's always gonna be people that really, really appreciate it," he said, adding that some people manage to discover the original blues by working their way back. "Some people that buy Stevie Ray Vaughn, Z.Z. Top, stuff like that, go below the surface and buy the roots," he said. "Taste is one thing, but the facts are another."

Living Blues magazine, which is based in Mississippi, has often addressed the issue of the legitimacy of white blues artists. A controversy was recently sparked within the magazine's letters section by readers responding to a cover photo of blues duo Satan and Adam. Adam was the first white artist ever to be featured on the cover of Living Blues, David Nelson, editor of the magazine, said. The photo ran a few months ago.

Some readers wrote in complaining that it was about time, after 27 years of the magazine's publication, that a white artist appeared on the cover. Others argued that the first time was one too many.

The magazine sympathized more with those that did not want white artists on the cover, Nelson said, because the focus of its content is more geared toward blues as an expression of culture and tradition rather than just as a musical style.

"Our primary focus is on blues as a black tradition and as an expression of black culture in addition to being simply a musical form," he said, pointing out that the magazine's masthead reads "The Magazine of the African-American Blues Tradition."

"It's not so much that we question the validity of white blues artists," said Living Blues Business and Promotions Manager Mickey McLaurin. "It's just a matter of what the magazine focuses on. We emphasize that black artists are more traditionally linked with blues history."

Living Blues does not have an agenda against white blues artists or white fans, but simply wants to educate and inform people about the cultural roots of the music, and not just the music itself.

"The magazine has never said that white artists can't play the blues," Nelson said. "But we do see the base of the blues in black culture. I think it's unfortunate if people are hearing music and not knowing the full history behind what they are hearing," he said. "I really see the blues as the base of all popular American music."

But some fans feel that the African American experience expressed in the blues can be related to and associated with the experiences of all Americans.

"The blues began as a very personal kind of expression in African American culture in the deep South," Kelly said. "But the expression is obviously related to a lot of Americans -- Americans of all different races -- and now, it's all of our music."