蓝调(blues)
一种民俗音乐，结合了重覆的和声结构及强调音阶中降音或「蓝色」的第三音和第七音的旋律。蓝调的具体起源不清，但以前的奴隶音乐元素包括了呼应模式以及灵歌和劳动歌曲的切分旋律。20世纪初蓝调的结构开始定型，最常用的是十二小节曲式，使用大音阶中的第一、第四和第五度和弦。最初起源於人的歌声，乐器演奏者用「压弦滑奏」的音调来模仿人声。通常采用三行诗节，第二行的歌词一般都是重覆第一行的。来自德州和密西西比三角洲的农村蓝调的精致建立了抒情歌唱和乐器演奏的传统，其特点往往是像说话似地变化音调，并加上吉他的伴奏。汉迪的作曲将蓝调元素带入了20世纪头十年的流行音乐中。1920年代初歌手雷尼和贝西史密斯录制了第一张蓝调唱片，用爵士乐伴奏，她们的演唱风格就成为古典蓝调风格。蓝调的高度个性化诠释和即兴表演结合了它的结构和变调要素，成为爵士乐、节奏蓝调和摇滚乐的基础。
English version：
blues
Secular musical form incorporating a repeating harmonic structure with melodic emphasis on the flatted or “blue” third and seventh notes of the scale. The specific origins of the blues are not known, but elements of the music of former slaves include the call-and-response pattern and syncopated rhythms of spirituals and work songs. The codification of the structure of the blues occurred in the early 20th century, most commonly as a 12-bar phrase using the chords of the first, fourth, and fifth degrees of the major scale. Its origins as a primarily vocal form induced instrumental performers to imitate the human voice with “bent” notes. Lyric stanzas are usually in three lines, the words of the second generally repeating those of the first. The elaboration of the rural blues from Texas and the Mississippi delta established both lyric and instrumental traditions, often featuring speech-like inflection and guitar accompaniment. W.C. Handy's compositions brought blues elements to the popular music of the first decades of the century. The first blues recordings featured singers Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith in the early 1920s using jazz accompanists, performing a style which would become known as classic blues. The highly personal interpretations and improvisation of the blues, combined with elements of its structure and inflection, served as the foundation for jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock music.