The blues, literally meaning depressed mood, began shortly before jazz in the 19th century and the music was originated, similarly to jazz, by black communities of the Deep South. The idea behind blues was rooted in the hardships and tribulations of slaves during the 19th century. Its main themes included spirituality, field work, oppression and injustice. The chants, shouts and hymns sung by the slaves would eventually develop into what is now known as the blues. Musical traits include rhythmic talk, repetitive chords and similarly repeated musical patterns.
Blues can generally be divided into four subdivisions ranging from country to urban blues. The most popular types of blues include Chicago blues, Delta, Piedmont and Jump. During the 1920s, the blues became popular during economic collapse and the prohibition movement where artists like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, also known as "Mother of the Blues," became the voices of the times.
Once World War II began, blues switched from acoustic to electric, which led to a bigger audience and broader knowledge of the genre. Muddy Waters is the voice and sound most commonly known as the beginning of electric blues and B.B. King later became the most well-known electric blues recording artist of the modern era.
The word jazz was first used in Chicago around 1915 as a slang term of some kind, but for what its known for today, jazz originated in the early stages of the 20th century in black communities in the American South. It was inspired by a variety of musical traditions from African and European culture and was more commonly known as Ragtime in its prime. Some of its musical traits taken from Africa include its blue notes, polyrhythms, improvisation and the swung note, or lilting, which is a note with equal time value that's performed with unequal durations.
Jazz's many subgenres include that of the New Orleans Dixieland and big band jazz, which eventually developed into swing music of the 1940s. In the 1950s, Latin jazz like Afro-Cuban became popular, acid jazz was born in the 1970s and by the 1980s, jazz was having an influence on genres like hip-hop and funk.
Some prominent names involved with the jazz community are Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, who was one of its first and most prolific recording artists, bandleader Duke Ellington, who is widely regarded as the most important big band composer, trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis, who became a role model for the genre, especially in areas of bebop and jazz rock, as well as female vocalists Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
The blues influenced jazz and jazz now influences the blues, and musical theorists and critics argue that the two genres often mold into subgenres with one another. Both were started by blacks in the South, and evolved from tales of hardship and gospel root to a more modern, freebase sound loosely categorized as jazz.
Both genres of music are still widely celebrated today and are a huge part of America's big city tourist culture in places like Chicago, New Orleans and New York.