The Art of the Blues: A Visual Treasury of Black Music’s Golden Age by Bill Dahl (2016)

There can never be enough praise of the blues, a music that has deeply influenced any kind of Western popular music. Without the blues, there would be no jazz (not the way we know it), no skiffle, no beat, no rock music and so on.

Together with blues music, naturally there came a way of presenting the style, be it called race music (labeled so until the early 1940s), piano blues, county blues, rhythm and blues and so forth. Marketing for this product became important, as sales increased, at this time, mostly in the African American community.

Little wonder then, that there was massive advertising in black newspapers such as the Chicago Defender. The many different approaches to promote this special audio product, the many designs, the inclusion of drawings, pictures, dancing scenes, country stills and presentations of stereotypical scenes, as well as black poverty that today would be called outright racist were rather normal back in the 1930 and 1940s.

„The Art of the Blues … [is] a tribute to the visual side of its golden age, when rare and beautiful images abounded that perfectly complemented the epochal music. These artifacts, including record advertisements, posters, and 78 rpm (78s) record labels, were diligently designed, especially during the prewar era. Lavish, color-soaked artwork adorning 1920s sheet music seemed to jump right off the page,” writes author Bill Dahl, a freelance music writer for Living Blues, Goldmine and The Chicago Tribune.

Lots and lots of rare photographs, hi-res reproductions of studio recording pictures, newspaper ads and naturally record labels and music publishing catalogs fill this book. Brief histories of the most important American blues labels serve as chapter introductions. Dahl gives a short overview on the changing styles and mostly lets the pictures speak for themselves in ten sections.

Many pages feature just a single super size picture. “During the 1930s, a sleeker, more streamlined look inspired by art deco came into fashion. That great attention to detail faded during the 1940s and ’50s, but the period brought its own share of artistic delights, especially in the design of album covers. During the first half of the 1960s, stately portraits of the artists were in vogue for album cover art…”

The great detail and high quality of hundreds of reproductions are a delight for blues fans and record collectors alike; unfortunately, only the “Golden Age” of the blues is covered, which should be the 1940s and 1950s.
That means hardly any documentation or pictures on country blues musicians or their ads are included.

All in all, this is a very good visual documentation of blues marketing and publishing (do not expect to find any extensive writing on the development of the blues as a style), or if you prefer that, a solid – three pound – and entertaining coffee-table book.

Review by Dr. A. Ebert © 2017

Bill Dahl. The Art of the Blues: A Visual Treasury of Black Music’s Golden Age. University of Chicago Press, 2016, 224 p.