It is a vocal and instrumental expression that is a catharsis for the African American experience of exclusion, assimilation, and integration. While jazz is primarily an instrumental idiom, blues is primarily a vocal genre. Important performers include Charlie Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Scrapper Blackwell. Important performers include Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, and W.C. Handy. Urban Blues are the product of the southern outmigration to cities such as Chicago, Memphis, and Detroit.
Blues is truth.
Well, one thing, when you write the blues and what you be thinking about, you be blue and you ain't got hardly nothing to think about. You just already blue, and you just go and write. It is a story telling form told from the perspective of the African American experience. Blues is a text form. The first line states an idea.