My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes

Many of the best known blues musicians came from the southern states of America, and some would argue that the Mississippi delta was the birthplace of the blues. This area had a greater concentration of black people than any other part of the country, and an economy based largely on cotton farming which meant that this was also an area in which segregation and social isolation of black people through lack of economic opportunity was deeply entrenched.

The large scale migration of black workers from the southern states to the northern cities, often referred to as the Great Migration, created pockets of densely populated and very poor black communities within the urban areas of the cities. Prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s, many of the migrant agricultural labourers found themselves jobs in city factories, but these were poorly paid. However, they took their sense of community with them and a more dynamic version of the blues emerged, making use of the new technology of electric amplification. Chicago is often credited as the home of the urban blues, and, with its burgeoning recording industry, the city’s vibrant musical environment became a draw for jazz, blues and other musicians.

The careers of early blues musicians were defined in part by gender. The famous female singers tended to stay within their home communities and often had a matriarchal role within it. They worked in clubs, speakeasies and bars and often teamed up with male colleagues who acted as accompanists or band leaders... The male singers often became migrant workers, moving from the plantations of the Mississippi delta to larger towns and cities such as Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago, often living in very tough conditions and subject to racial segregation and abuse. In these displaced communities, singing and dancing became a means of maintaining a collective identity and voicing emotions. Migrant musicians tended to accompany themselves on guitar rather than piano because of its portability. The original delta blues continued to be part of the southern culture, but as musicians became more mobile, the blues were transformed for new communities.
Source: A short history of the blues by Naomi Barker

My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes

• Released on: Loveless Album
• Released in: November 4, 1991
• Written by: Kevin Shields

"My Bloody Valentine are regarded by some as the pioneers of the alternative rock subgenre known as shoegaze, a term coined by Sounds journalists in the 1990s to describe certain bands motionless performing style, where they stood on stage and stared at the floor."

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