Blues

Blues, often the blues, is a music. It derived its name from the term 'blue devils' of the mid-18th century which meant 'depression or delirium tremens.' Since the music is melancholic, it is called the blues. It has black American folk origin, typically having twelve-bar sequence. It was developed in the southern rural areas of the United States among black Americans sometime toward the end of the 19th century, but it acquired prominence in the 1940s, chiefly due to the music also became popular in the cities. With migration from rural to urban areas, the black people carried the music with them in the urban areas where it acquired a particular form that we call urban blues, which in its turn gave rise to 'rhythm and blues' and 'rock and roll'. See also blue note.