From the blues to pop
从蓝调音乐到流行音乐
Early jazz
早期爵士乐
Today I will take a brief look at how Western music progressed from the blues to pop.
今天我将简要回顾西方流行音乐是如何从蓝调走向流行音乐的。
Modern pop music has its roots in the folk songs of black Americans held in slavery.
现代流行音乐起源于奴隶时代的黑人民间音乐。
During the early part of the 19th century, black musicians used these folk songs to create a kind of music called the blues, because it had a tendency to be very sad.
19世纪早期,黑人音乐家使用民乐创作除了名为蓝调的音乐,因为这种音乐倾向于悲伤的情感。
While the blues was popular, as a musical format it lacked variety and was too sad and slow to dance to.
尽管蓝调音乐非常受欢迎,但作为一种音乐形式,它缺少变化,而且太伤感、节奏太慢,不适合跳舞时伴奏。
Thus, from the blues, there sprung up a faster, livelier kind of music called jazz.
于是,从蓝调音乐发展出一种更轻快、更活波的音乐形式,叫做爵士乐。
Louis Armstrong, a black trumpet player and singer, was one of the fathers of jazz.
Louis Armstrong,一个黑人小号手和歌手,是爵士乐之父。
Unlike most musicians who played the music as it was written, he would change the music as he was playing it to reflect his feelings at the time.
和大多数照着曲子演绎音乐的音乐人不同,他在表演的时候根据当时自己的感情变换音乐形式。
Other musicians began to copy his style and the liberty he brought to his music.
其他的音乐人开始仿照他的表演让以及他带给音乐的自由化。
The ability to adapt the music while it is being played is one of the major characteristics of jazz.
音乐的适应能力是爵士乐的主要特征。