The Blues is a genre and musical form that originated in African-American communities in the deep south of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in traditional African music, combined with European American folk music.
The Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions.