The Blues Lyric Formula

by Taft; Michael

• ISBN13: 9780415974981
• ISBN10: 0415974984
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-02-16
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

While the blues musical form has been widely studied, the structure and content of blues lyrics have been less fully explored.The Blues Lyric Formulais a structural analysis of the formulaic composition of blues lyrics, focusing on the songs recorded by African-American singers for the pre-World War II commercial recording companies. While some scholars have worked in this area, there has never been a rigorous and detailed exploration of exactly how blues singers used formulas in creating a commercially acceptable form of song. This book gives a step-by-step description of the rules implicit in the formulaic structure of the blues, with the goal of inspiring new discussion of blues lyric structure and to flesh out the intuitions of previous scholars. The Blues Lyric Formulashould appeal to a wide array of readers, from students of African-American music and culture to students of literature, sociology, history, and linguistics. Blues fans will also be fascinated by this firstthorough study of how blues lyrics are written.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(6)
1 Defining the Commercial Blues	7	(18)
2 Defining the Blues Formula	25	(32)
3 Fine Adjustments: Extraformulaic Elements in the Blues	57	(22)
4 The Ties That Bind: Formulas to Lines, Lines to Stanzas, Stanzas to Songs	79	(30)
5 Twenty Common Formulas	109	(88)
6 One Singer's Formulaic Tradition: The Repertoire of Garfield Akers	197	(88)
Conclusion: Why Is the Blues Formulaic?	285	(26)
Singers and Their Songs	311	(36)
References	347	(12)
Index	359