2. The Blues

3. The Blues
form genre

4. The Blues

5. The Blues
America’s Greatest Creations

6. The Blues
America’s Greatest Creations
#1 #2 #3 #4

7. The Blues

8. The Blues
“It is from the blues that all that may be called
American music derives its most distinctive
characteristics.”
- James Weldon Johnson

10. What makes music good?
me = you = other people > american idol judges

12. What makes music good?
Evokes Emotion Compositionally Interesting

14. “Strange Fruit”
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

15. “Strange Fruit”

16. “Strange Fruit”
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning esh!

17. “Strange Fruit”

18. “Strange Fruit”
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

19. “Strange Fruit”

20. “Strange Fruit”

21. “Strange Fruit”

22. “Strange Fruit”
“almost single-handedly changed the
politics of American black culture and put
the elements of protest and resistance back
at the center of contemporary black musical
culture”
- Alice Walker

23. “Strange Fruit”

24. “Strange Fruit”
“the rst signi cant protest in words and
music, the rst unmuted cry against racism”
- Leonard Feather
(not pictured)