Following the American Civil War in 1861, blues music emerged in the southern United States. It was heavily influenced by field hollers, ragtime, work songs, church music, folk music, and Caucasian popular music.

Music that developed in the hearts of Afro-Americans in the mid-nineteenth century attained public prominence in the 1920s when musicians like W.C. Handy and Ma Rainey began performing the melodies. By the late 1930s and early 1940s, blues had become a popular genre in lounges such as the Juke Joints that sprouted up in southern states such as Mississippi and Texas.