Though
much early rock & roll was based in the blues, blues-rock didn't fully develop
into a subgenre until the late-'60s. Blues-rock emphasized two specific things
-- the traditional, three-chord blues song and instrumental improvisation. Borrowing
the idea of an instrumental combo and loud amplification from rock & roll, the
original blues-rockers -- bands like Cream that grew out of the Alexis Korner
and John Mayall tradition of British blues, as well as American bands like the
Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Canned Heat -- also attempted to play long,
involved improvisations which were commonplace on jazz records, as well as live
blues shows. The hybrid became quite popular and the bands that immediately
followed them were louder and more riff-oriented. Out of this approach came
heavy metal and Southern rock, which both used basic blues riffs and featured
extended solos. In the early '70s, the lines between blues-rock and hard rock
were barely visible, as boogie-based bands like ZZ Top employed album-rock production
techniques that tended to obscure their blues roots. However, blues-rock soon
backed away from hard rock, and there was a set number of acts that continued
to play (and rewrite) blues standards as well as write their own songs in the
same idiom. In the '80s and '90s, blues-rock was more roots-oriented than in
the '60s and '70s, even when artists like the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie
Ray Vaughan flirted with rock stardom. By the '80s, blues-rock had become an
accepted tradition, much like the blues.
Blues
Rock
