The Significance of Blues in Women’s Music History

With March being Women’s History Month, I figured I wanted to write about all the amazing women in the music industry that inspire me everyday. However, once I got to thinking about women in music, and specifically their history, it really started to dawn on me that the real conversation around the history of women in music is the significance of blues. Specifically, the significance of the classic blues singers from the 1920s and 1930s whose music has stood the test of time and have found their influence even in the new music we hear today. Now you may be reading this thinking “Okay, yea people still listen and love blues today” but you may be surprised to find out just how many of your favorite artists’ influences can be traced back to the classic blues and just how impactful it is in today’s music.

To start off this conversation, it is important to know and understand the women who started and pioneered the blues. In the 1920s and 1930s, blues blossomed from the talents of African American women as they pushed through the racial prejudice they faced and went on to put their names on the map, as well as receive recognition from major record labels. The original women of blues in the 1920s and 1930s were Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Ma Rainey is considered to pretty much be the first big name in blues and is appropriately referred to as “The Mother of Blues.” Ma Rainey also served as the mentor to Bessie Smith, who is rightfully known as “The Empress of Blues.” I have also previously went into more detail regarding Bessie Smith and her story on my post titled “Bessie Smith: The Empress of Blues and So Much More” if you’d like a little more background. Both Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith used their voice to sing about the struggles they faced being African American, as well as women during those times. Their music paved a way for women to really be heard and understood which took their music to a whole new level of expressing your emotions, hence the birth of blues. Following Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, another influential woman in the blues scene was Billie Holiday, who has sighted Bessie Smith as one of her main influences. Billie Holiday is sometimes referred to as “The First Lady of Blues” while also given significant credit in the swing genre of music. As Billie was getting more and more popular, the musical styles of swing and jazz were starting to emerge from the influences of blues. Frank Sinatra has also sighted Billie Holiday as one of his major influences.

photo from The Independent

Following the emergence of swing and jazz, the next set of women in music who have blues to thank for their influence are Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Big Mama Thornton, and Sippie Wallace. These women and this era of music really started to bridge the gap between blues and rock n’ roll. This group of women all have similar influences from the previous women mentioned, however, they each have their own spin off of where their musical style ended up. Etta James had probably the largest spread of genres she touched due to her being able to deliver music in the styles of blues, swing, jazz, R&B, soul, rock n’ roll, and even gospel. Due to her deep and powerful voice, she is credited on many “Greatest of All Time” lists. Etta James has also been noted as a huge influence to artists such as Diana Ross, Janis Joplin, Adele, and Christina Aguilera. Ella Fitzgerald went in more of a jazz and swing direction with her blues influence and is known as one of the most famous jazz singers of all time. Ella is widely known for her unique tone and scat singing, as well as her collaborations with Louis Armstrong. Big Mama Thornton played a significant role in the direction of rock n’ roll from her blues influence. She has sighted Bessie Smith as one of her major influences, while being known for her transition into rock n’ roll. Big Mama Thornton was the first artist to record the song “Hound Dog”, later made more popular by Elvis Presley, and also was the writer behind the song “Ball and Chain” which was later made famous after Janis Joplin performed it with Big Brother and the Holding Co. Big Mama Thornton is also praised with undermining the traditional roles of African American women due to her strong sense of self. Sippie Wallace is another blues singer whose career was heavily influenced by the original women of blues, Ma and Bessie. She primarily stuck to gospel based on her upbringing but would sneak out at night to perform in tent shows where she would eventually build herself a reputation as a successful blues singer. Sippie is also sighted as one of the significant influences of Bonnie Raitt. The work of these four women, and many others during this time, went on to become some of the key elements that would bring forth the rise of women in rock n’ roll into the 1960s and 1970s.

So now we enter into the 1960s and 1970s era of music where we start to really see the influence of blues turn towards soul and rock n’ roll. One of the most popular groups of the 1960s was The Supremes, which also acted as Motown’s most successful act of the 1960s. The Supremes, and specifically Diana Ross, were heavily influenced by blues and took that influence towards more of a soul and R&B direction. Similar to The Supremes and Diana Ross, we have Aretha Franklin. Aretha Franklin is a wonderful example of blues influence transitioning to soul music. Aretha is well known as “The Queen of Soul” and her career spans over five decades. While these are just two examples, there were many others who took that blues influence and dove into the soul genre. On the other end of the spectrum, we now have the rock n’ roll aspect of blues. Major examples of this would be Janis Joplin and Tina Turner. Janis Joplin gave plenty of credit to Bessie Smith and Big Mama Thornton in making her the artist she was. She even paid for Bessie Smith to have a headstone and gave Big Mama Thornton the opportunity to open for her at some shows due to her lack of recognition for being a woman of color. Janis Joplin is probably the best example of blues-rock because we can clearly see the influence as well as the uniqueness of her sound as she entered into the rock n’ roll scene. Tina Turner is another wonderful example of blues influence to rock n’ roll. Tina Turner’s voice has been described by journalist Kurt Loder as "the emotional force of the great blues singers with a sheer, wallpaper-peeling power that seemed made to order for the age of amplification.” When you hear Tina sing you can just tell there is a blues background but her voice seems to be perfect for that rock n’ roll sound. These examples from the 1960s and 1970s would become major influences for the women in the 1980s and beyond.

Now that we have reached the 1980s and 1990s, it is important to note the significant contributors to this era based on those we have previously mentioned. Bonnie Raitt, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, and Lauryn Hill are just a few who have sighted many times the influences of women in blues, as well as the women of R&B and soul music. Bonnie Raitt is a notable example of blues and rock giving into more of an Americana sound. Bonnie Raitt has also given Sippie Wallace significant credit to her influence in music. On the other hand, we have Whitney Houston who took the influences of Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight and put her own spin on soul into more pop music. Whitney Houston is well known as one of the best-selling artists of all time and has been sighted as a major significance in the careers of many African American female artists. Similar to Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson was heavily influenced by soul music, as well as her experience in her family band, The Jackson Five. However, Janet Jackson went in an even more pop music direction and was declared a “pop-culture phenomenon” as so many pop artists have sighted her as an influence. That then brings us to Lauryn Hill who is an example of soul influence turned hip-hop. Lauryn started out with the group The Fugees and then later began her solo career with her debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which represents the mix of R&B, hip-hop, soul, and reggae. These four examples represent four different directions that the blues influence lead to in the 1980s and 1990s which spans over many different genres, as well as opening up room for more. These four women carved out their own type of style and may not necessarily sound alike, but at their core, they represent how far the influence of blues has come.

That now brings us to the early 2000s through today’s modern music. Believe it or not, there are so many of today’s artists who can be traced back to the roots of blues music. As we have discussed, blues music was pretty much the blueprint of women in music, specifically blues women of color, and one of the fundamental building blocks of beloved genres such as soul, R&B, rock n’ roll, all the way to pop and even hip-hop. We wouldn’t have those different genres today if it wasn’t for the initial influence of blues. It is so interesting to me how today’s biggest names can be traced back to blues. For example, major pop artists such as Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande, Alicia Keys, and Christina Aguilera have all given credit to Whitney Houston when it comes to their musical style. While Whitney received her musical influence from Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin, who then received their influence from Etta James and Bessie Smith. See, the core is blues. Another example is artists like Amy Winehouse, Madonna, and Adele giving credit to Diana Ross, while Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald were the artists who influenced Diana Ross. Artists such as Norah Jones, Susan Tedeschi, and Amy Winehouse have credited Janis Joplin as one of their prominent influences, who was then heavily influenced by Big Mama Thornton, Bessie Smith, and Ma Rainey. These are just a few obvious examples of different significant women in today’s modern music who may not all have similar sounds, or even close for that matter, but can all be traced back to blues. Something I have always found important when learning about artists is who they’re influenced by because I love to see who I can trace it back to. Because whether or not they want to admit it, many of these major players in today’s music who think they’re doing something unique still have to had been influenced by something.

So as we go about the rest of March and continue to celebrate the history of women and everything they have overcome, it is important to really appreciate the women over 100 years ago who broke through barriers to give us the music we love and enjoy today. Happy Women’s History Month to all of you strong women out there and cheers to those women continuing to break barriers all over the world!