List of blues rock musicians
The following is a list of blues rock musicians. Blues rock is a subgenre of rock which developed in the late-1960s and which emphasizes the traditional, three-chord blues song and instrumental improvisation. The first original blues rock artists such as Cream, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Canned Heat actually borrowed the idea of combining an instrumental combo with loud amplification from rock and roll, and also attempted to play long, involved improvisations which were commonplace on jazz records and live blues shows. As blues rock gained popularity, bands that followed immediately were louder  and more riff-oriented, giving birth to both heavy metal and Southern rock, which both used basic blues riffs and featured extended solos. In the early 1970s, the lines between blues rock and hard rock were barely visible, as bands including ZZ Top began recording rock-oriented albums that tended to obscure their blues roots. However, blues rock soon distinguished itself from hard rock and acts continued to play or rewrite blues standards, as well as write their own songs in the same idiom. In the 1980s and 1990s, blues rock was more roots-oriented than in the 1960s and  1970s, even when artists such as the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan flirted with rock stardom. Solo artists are listed alphabetically by last name, and groups are listed alphabetically by the first letter (not including the prefix "the", "a" or "an").