America’s heart and soul: why the blues is still king.
The blues has been around longer, rocks harder, hits deeper, and means more to America than country ever could.
Albert King at the Fillmore East, October 19, 1968, taken by Grant Gouldon.
I still remember the first chord progression my dad taught me on my first guitar well over ten years ago—the 12-bar blues. The blues seemed like an unusual mashup: defined and replicable, yet open and free-flowing. Being able to mold it to my liking, I found the genre spoke to me more than anything. The blues became my Bible for every solo I’d improvise and hundreds of artists I’d fall in love with in the years to follow—structured but free, musical perfection.
“I think the music reflects the state that the society is in. It doesn't suggest the state. I think the poets and musicians and artists are of the age—not only do they lead the age on, but they also reflect that age.” – John Lennon
To echo Lennon’s powerful words, music represents our culture, values, and identities as Americans, deeply rooted in everything we are and want to share and express. Though we are such a distinct nation, an oft-debated question remains: what is the most American music genre? While country is often considered quintessentially American, blues more accurately embodies America; the blues depict America’s history of struggle, express American values, and have had an immense influence on the American music scene. While both genres are undoubtedly American in origin and vital to American music as we know it today, blues is the king.
Blues, inspired by spirituals and work songs but telling the stories of freed men and women in the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, has its origins in the free African Americans who moved from the South to the North in the decades following the Civil War (AAIHS). Like the plantation work songs that came before them, the first blues songs incorporated religious themes and expressed one’s pain and labor, yet with a newfound passion (Jazz Aspen Snowmass, PBS Detroit). As the wounds of decades of hardship were still fresh, the blues genre gave a voice to the personal and collective struggle of African Americans, a theme that has become a hallmark of the American story.
The 12-bar blues as we know it was pioneered by William C. Handy with his 1912 piece “Memphis Blues,” finally giving a defined structure to a burgeoning genre. The first recordings of blues songs finally arrived in the 1920s and only expanded in the 30s and 40s as the Great Depression gave rise to the Chicago Blues, led by Muddy Waters and the likes of John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, and T-Bone Walker (Charlotte Blues Society). As rock-and-roll burst onto the scene over the next few decades, it fed the birth of modern blues as Waters passed the torch to the Kings (Freddie, Albert, B.B.), Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. This new generation of blues musicians were guitar heroes who wove blues into the mainstream and changed the music world forever. Now headlined by the smooth, jazzy soft-rock of John Mayer and the effortless, virtuosic swagger of hip-hop-influenced Gary Clark Jr., the fusion of rock and blues still powers the evolution of American music today.
On the other hand, country has only existed as a genre since the early 1920s and largely came out of the Appalachian region as a symbol of rural America. Compared to the more harrowing origins of the blues, country largely focuses on ‘simpler times’ full of nostalgic themes like family, hard work, and rural life. Country tells the stories of millions of working-class people, but it tends to take a more individualized perspective that simply doesn’t capture a wide enough scope to be the representative genre of the most unique nation of people Earth has to offer. Even ignoring the racial divides that tend to exist within country music, it is catered to one subsect of the American people rather than centering around themes that are universal to the American experience. It fails to capture the full extent of resilience and triumph essential to the ‘American Dream’.
Much of what makes the blues such a special genre of music is its status as the sound of American struggle and resilience throughout the 20th century and its astounding influence on other areas of music, creating a legacy that still stands strong today. Blues is arguably the foundation of modern music in America, expanding to give birth to soul, jazz, R&B (of course, rhythm and blues), and rock and roll. It has inspired some of history’s most legendary artists from Led Zeppelin to Jimi Hendrix to the Allman Brothers. When it was revolutionizing the music world, the blues also served as a vital social vehicle during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s—a way to both protest and celebrate culture.
This new significance gave rise to mythical bluesmen like Robert Johnson, B.B. King, and Chicago’s own Muddy Waters. They were no longer just articulating their hardships, they were simultaneously the peak of artistic expression and the voices of a generation fighting for civil rights and social justice. The blues was—and still is—a way to channel collective pain into a form of artistic expression that is both beautiful and defiant. The themes of heartache, resilience, and transformation speak to the human condition in ways that transcend race, geography, or class. Blues music, with its complex rhythms and emotional depth, is a genre that unites, not divides.
Country certainly has its merits as an ‘American’ sound, but the blues is far more thematically and philosophically representative of who Americans are. For a country that prides itself on the ‘little guy’ being able to rise up and make something of himself through the ‘American Dream,’ what could be more fitting than the blues? No other genre of music melds the swaggering stereotype of American patriotism with free expression and the inspiring perseverance of turning pain into success. Country might feel like an idealized stereotype of America, but blues is far more authentic in its representation of America. Like America, blues is a melting pot that has and continues to influence every genre of music imaginable. Above all, blues embodies the complexities and contradictions of America—its history of conflict, its capacity for reinvention, and its embrace of diverse influences.
It’s a genre that grew out of perseverance but thrives on hope—a perfect reflection of the American spirit. Blues isn't just music; it’s a narrative that reflects American society’s highs, lows, victories, and defeats. It's the heartbeat of a nation that has always been in flux, always fighting to live up to its own ideals. Country music will always have its place in the American landscape, but when you think about the music that represents the full, complex story of this country—the music that speaks to the efforts of those who have fought for freedom and equality—the blues stands as the true soundtrack of America.
To conclude, I wanted to offer some songs by ten of my favorite blues artists across the decades:
‘Cross Road Blues” by Robert Johnson
“Born Under A Bad Sign” by Albert King
“The Thrill Is Gone” by B.B. King
“I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters
“Key to the Highway” by Eric Clapton
“Midnight in Harlem” by the Tedeschi Trucks Band
“When My Train Pulls In” by Gary Clark Jr.
“Whipping Post” (live At Fillmore East) by the Allman Brothers Band
“Texas Flood” by Stevie Ray Vaughan
“The Well” by Marcus King
edited by Amishi Gupta.
photo taken by Grant Gouldon.