The blues began in the Mississippi Delta by black people who poured into the area looking for work and land. Evolving from the Negro spirituals, blues songs also spoke about themes of sorrow, only now the songs concentrated on the joys and the sorrows of life and ignored God.
It was the expression of these joys and sorrows that made the blues such an individual art. Some blues performers spoke with pride about how they learned the blues picking cotton in the fields. They would use the songs as a distraction sometimes and other times they would use them to speak of otherwise unvoiced pain and anger. This voice is significant in the history of black music because it gave the black man and woman a kind of strength that allowed them to survive the harsh treatment they endured in the fields.
Black mule skinners would face long work days themselves, waiting outside until first light came and beginning their work the moment it did. Their day would continue until it was too dark to work anymore, then they had the task of finding their way home without light. During the course of the day they used the African technique of singing to the mules as they drove them, often times to the mule's death. Before this happened though, sometimes the singing would get so intense that the mules would bray in response to the song while pulling up the levee.
The songs employed by railroad workers were a new breed of work song relying on rhythm more than on harmony to synchronize the work.
Other bluesmen used their talent so they wouldn't have to work at all. They would just set themselves up on a corner or street and start playing, then, when a beautiful woman passed, the bluesman would play and sing harder and louder. It wouldn't always work, but sometimes the woman would respond in kind to the performer and take the bluesman in. One bluesman talked about how he was playing one time and a woman came up to him and kissed him without even asking permission.
These are just a few examples of, and uses for, the blues. Take note that it draws from an evolved sense of African musical tradition using instruments reminiscent of African instruments including the fife (which was sometimes tuned to African scales,) the guitar, the diddly bow, the harmonica a.k.a. the harp, the voice and the most pervasive of African instruments, the drum.
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