Between the birth of the blues and their popular acceptance, there existed a classification called "race records." These contained music by and for Negroes, and for a quarter-century they were the only record outlets for such blues singers as the late Bessie Smith. Ma Rainey, et al. After the war, the offensive tag was changed to "rhythm and blues," but the contents remained the same, some of it root-primitive, most of it strongly rhythmical in the jazz vein.
Now the pop-music business, having scraped the hillbilly barrel and blown the froth off the...
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