{
  "slug": "blues",
  "name": "Blues",
  "aliases": [
    "delta blues",
    "chicago blues",
    "country blues",
    "electric blues"
  ],
  "description": "Twelve bars, three chords and a form flexible enough to carry a century. First recorded in 1920, moved north to Chicago and plugged in after the war, and the ancestor of very nearly every American music on this map.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "The Mississippi Delta",
    "year": 1920
  },
  "lineage": [],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 60,
    "max": 130
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-30",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/blues/",
  "trackCount": 10,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "robert-johnson--cross-road-blues",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/robert-johnson--cross-road-blues/",
      "title": "Cross Road Blues",
      "artist": "Robert Johnson",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/robert-johnson/",
      "year": 1936,
      "label": "Vocalion",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "One man, one guitar, and a sense of pursuit that no amount of retelling has managed to domesticate. The myth around Johnson is a distraction from how precise the playing actually is.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Robert%20Johnson%20Cross%20Road%20Blues",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxi4XkIVWLQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "howlin-wolf--smokestack-lightnin",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/howlin-wolf--smokestack-lightnin/",
      "title": "Smokestack Lightnin'",
      "artist": "Howlin' Wolf",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/howlin-wolf/",
      "year": 1956,
      "label": "Chess",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "One chord, a harmonica and a howl, held for three minutes without developing at all. The most hypnotic record on this list and the one the British bands could never get right.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Howlin'%20Wolf%20Smokestack%20Lightnin'",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=VMUt8KdDtTY",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "muddy-waters--im-your-hoochie-coochie-man",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/muddy-waters--im-your-hoochie-coochie-man/",
      "title": "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man",
      "artist": "Muddy Waters",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/muddy-waters/",
      "year": 1954,
      "label": "Chess",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Willie Dixon's stop-time riff, and the record that turned a Delta form into a band arrangement. Everything electric downstream of here is standing on this bassline.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Muddy%20Waters%20I'm%20Your%20Hoochie%20Coochie%20Man",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=yLlRM27MQag",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "mamie-smith--crazy-blues",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mamie-smith--crazy-blues/",
      "title": "Crazy Blues",
      "artist": "Mamie Smith",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mamie-smith/",
      "year": 1920,
      "label": "OKeh",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The first blues record ever released, and it sold in numbers nobody in the industry had predicted. An entire market for Black music was discovered by accident, in one afternoon.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mamie%20Smith%20Crazy%20Blues",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ88uyWYOPk",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "john-lee-hooker--boogie-chillen",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/john-lee-hooker--boogie-chillen/",
      "title": "Boogie Chillen'",
      "artist": "John Lee Hooker",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/john-lee-hooker/",
      "year": 1948,
      "label": "Modern",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A foot on a board, one guitar and no interest whatsoever in the bar line. Hooker's refusal to count is not a limitation, and half of rock and roll failed to notice.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/John%20Lee%20Hooker%20Boogie%20Chillen'",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=yzmogN7aj-I",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "bessie-smith--downhearted-blues",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/bessie-smith--downhearted-blues/",
      "title": "Downhearted Blues",
      "artist": "Bessie Smith",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/bessie-smith/",
      "year": 1923,
      "label": "Columbia",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The Empress of the Blues on her debut, outselling everything around her. Smith phrases like a horn player, which is the technique every singer on the soul list inherited.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Bessie%20Smith%20Downhearted%20Blues",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=k39GO8TVoX4",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "t-bone-walker--call-it-stormy-monday",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/t-bone-walker--call-it-stormy-monday/",
      "title": "Call It Stormy Monday",
      "artist": "T-Bone Walker",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/t-bone-walker/",
      "year": 1947,
      "label": "Black & White",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The electric guitar stops imitating a voice and becomes a lead instrument with its own vocabulary. B.B. King said hearing it was the reason he started; that is the whole review.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/T-Bone%20Walker%20Call%20It%20Stormy%20Monday",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xifoTGRBhg0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "b-b-king--3-oclock-blues",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/b-b-king--3-oclock-blues/",
      "title": "3 O'Clock Blues",
      "artist": "B.B. King",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/b-b-king/",
      "year": 1951,
      "label": "RPM",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "King's first hit, and the arrival of the single-note, vibrato-heavy style that became the default setting for lead guitar everywhere for fifty years.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/B.B.%20King%203%20O'Clock%20Blues",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=nPeTtg3fTB8",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "blind-willie-mctell--statesboro-blues",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/blind-willie-mctell--statesboro-blues/",
      "title": "Statesboro Blues",
      "artist": "Blind Willie McTell",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/blind-willie-mctell/",
      "year": 1928,
      "label": "Victor",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Twelve-string ragtime blues played with a lightness the Delta players never went in for. A reminder that the form was regional long before it was a genre.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Blind%20Willie%20McTell%20Statesboro%20Blues",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sk4Js6Q58h8",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 10,
      "trackKey": "bo-diddley--im-a-man",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/bo-diddley--im-a-man/",
      "title": "I'm a Man",
      "artist": "Bo Diddley",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/bo-diddley/",
      "year": 1955,
      "label": "Checker",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A boast, a riff and a maraca, all sharpened to a point. Muddy answered it within months, which is the closest the blues ever came to a rap battle.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Bo%20Diddley%20I'm%20a%20Man",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OKlAiuaYdoI",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}