Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
September 29, 2009
The Real Chicago Blues
John Grazian’s book Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs takes a look at what remains of Chicago’s blues joints, and at how the essence and even the “blackness” of the blues has become a commodity in Chicago’s tourism industry. It made me think of how “Sweet Home Chicago” is piped in and played ad nauseum in the Midway Airport baggage claim. Here’s a selection from an interview with Grazian:
GRAZIAN: The blues fell out of favor with middle-class blacks in the late 1950s and early 1960s because it was considered “gutbucket,” “low-class” music that recalled the countrified terrain of Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, and other southern spaces that their families had left behind. Also, since the blues has always been characterized as the music of poor people, it therefore did not resonate with upwardly mobile black audiences the way that more contemporary urban soul, rhythm and blues, and jazz music could.
Meanwhile, the blues grew in popularity among white audiences during this same period of time for several reasons: the blues was the progenitor of early rock ‘n’ roll; white artists such as Elvis Presley had gained prominence singing old blues songs like “That’s All Right,” “Reconsider Baby,” and “Hound Dog”; and young white music fans craved the authenticity represented by black blues singers like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
Today the Chicago blues audience continues to be mostly white, whereas many black consumers prefer hip-hop and rap, reggae, jazz, and dance music. (At the same time, one should also bear in mind that the black community is hardly monolithic; it is constituted by a diverse array of individuals with varying musical tastes.) But in spite of the relative homogeneity of the audiences, blues clubs still represent some of the most racially integrated public spaces in the city.
Question: The Chicago Blues Festival is now in its twentieth year. How does the city of Chicago use the blues—and authenticity—to promote itself?
GRAZIAN: It’s funny; while the city’s designation as the “Home of the Blues” seems rather self-evident, Chicago largely ignored the cultural resources of its segregated black neighborhoods during the now-celebrated “heyday” of the Chicago blues in the 1950s. In fact, the city only began incorporating its blues legacy into its presentation of itself after its blues clubs began attracting white audiences. Today, the city relies on the blues to attract tourists from all over the world and promotes the blues in its promotional brochures, hotels, music festivals, and local neighborhood tours of the city. In fact, a few years back the Department of Environment used the city’s blues heritage to promote its landfill conservation and waste management strategies, drawing on its inflated reputation as the “Home of the Blues” to advertise its blue-bag recycling campaign on the sides of public city buses. When Robert Johnson penned his well-known ode to the city, “Sweet Home Chicago,” it is unclear whether this is quite what he had in mind.
You can read the full interview with David Grazian here, courtesy of the University of Chicago Press.
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