BLUES

By the beginning of the 1960s, genres influenced by African American music such as rock and roll and soul were part of mainstream popular music. Caucasian performers had brought African-American music to new audiences, both within the US and abroad.

The music of the Civil Rights and Free Speech movements in the US prompted a resurgence of interest in American roots music and early African American music. Music festivals such as the Newport Folk Festival brought traditional blues to a new audience. Caucasian audiences' interest in the blues during the 1960s increased due to the Chicago-based Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

In the late 1960s, the West Side style blues emerged in Chicago with Magic Sam, Magic Slim and Otis Rush. West Side style has strong rhythmic support from a rhythm guitar, bass electric guitar, and drums.

B.B. King's virtuoso guitar technique earned him the eponymous title "king of the blues". Blues performers such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters continued to perform to enthusiastic audiences, inspiring new artists steeped in traditional blues, such as New York-born Taj Mahal.

Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield guitarist Stephen Stills joined together to form the first "super-group" and recorded the Super session (1968), an album that grew out of a single nine hour jam  and marked the meeting of acid-rock, folk-rock and blues revival.