Jazz Origins

[Birchy]

Is it safe to say that jazz is 'popular blues'?

[andy hughes]

A more likely recipient of the label of 'popular blues', apart from blues itself of course, is probably rap. Because the roots and raison d'etre of blues music is the disaffectation and need to express an overall despair with lifestyle and prospects, the modern equivalent would appear to be rap music. Rap is undoubtedly rooted in the same expressions and chronicles of the unhappiness and frustration utilised as the fabric of blues music. The increasingly high profile of rap specifically, and r'n'b music generally. shows that a musical expression of the harder side of life is as popular as ever.