Rap, angst, gospel & neo-soul make blues the new black

By Owen Roncon
The year 2016 has seen an incredibly long list of album launches of newcomers and veterans alike. Musically speaking, it’s been one where boundaries have been rewritten, identities have been redefined and sounds have been reimagined. From Disturbed’s haunting rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence and The Rolling Stones’ Blue & Lonesome, to Kaleo’s chart-topper ‘Way Down We Go’ and Rihanna’s soulstirrer ‘Anti’, we’ve been treated to a jukebox of emotions.
Icelandic rockers Kaleo burst into the charts with ‘Way Down We Go’ this year, opening the song with an almost gospel treatment. JJ Julius Son’s angst-y vocals, very reminiscent of a darker Johny Lang, along with foot-stomping rhythm, was both evocative and soothing.
Rihanna’s Anti album is replete with musical delights that test genres and make them her own, in a way that only Rihanna can.
The Pretty Reckless’ ‘Take Me Down’ was another Billboard topper that ran on the rasp vocals of Taylor Momsen in a song that is set in the Mississippi Delta, at a spot where musicians were said to have bartered with the devil for fame and success. The rousing Rag’n’Bone Man song ‘Human’ hit no. 1 in 27 countries in 2016, for its delightful fusion of blues with contemporary rap and neo-soul.
The Rolling Stones released an all-covers album for the first time and what made it truly special was the band’s return to its blues influences. For a band that spent 50 years being one of the greatest rock and roll outfits, this was a career first.
What unites all of the above major successes of 2016, has been the songs’ unmistakable roots in the blues. A genre often derided as one of old and sad people, the blues has an identity issue with the younger listeners of today. Exalted as niche, brooding and therefore out of bounds from the youth, the genre is looked at as a peaty single malt in a generation that’s doing Jager Bombs. But 2016 has proven that that notion couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Both major and young mainstream artists have demonstrated that chartbusting pop and rock songs of 2016, have in fact such obvious blues overtones that the audiences today have lapped up for the sheer love of the sound and how it has made them feel. When Rihanna howled “This whiskey got me feelin’ pretty/so pardon if I’m impolite,” on Higher, it was followed by a delicious two-minute interlude that resonated the soul of the blues.
The Mahindra Blues Festival has also featured artists such as Joss Stone, and Derek Trucks in an attempt to introduce new audiences to the grand Blues world. To say that the blues of today is only the preserve of the hugely successful pop/rock with blues soul artistes like John Mayer and Jack White would do grave injustice to the plethora of mainstream artists who, from time to time, dabble with a genre that has been an overarching influencer in their lives.
The blues have, in fact, been quite cool in the recent years because more and more young artistes are tipping their hat to the genre, taking it to wider and newer audiences. And 2016 has resoundingly shown that malt drinkers and shot guzzlers need not be two different people. I think its fair to say, Blues is the new Black!
(Owen Roncon is the co-founder of Oranjuice Entertainment)