Delta
· Geographic. The Mississippi Delta — the alluvial plain of northwest Mississippi where the blues was
codified as a distinct musical form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Delta is the point
of origin for a musical tradition whose migration northward and westward shaped the entire trajectory of American
popular music.
Migration
· Historical. The Great Migration — the movement of approximately six million Black Americans from the
rural South to the urban North between 1910 and 1970, carrying with them a musical tradition that, in contact with
urban conditions, electricity, and new instruments, became rhythm and blues, soul, funk, and eventually hip-hop.
The Delta Migration
adj. Of or pertaining to the musical transformation produced by the Great Migration — the
specific quality of a form that carries its Delta origin into an urban, electrified context while remaining
audibly connected to its source.
n.(a The Delta Migration) (a Delta Migration) The traceable musical lineage from
Delta blues through Chicago blues to rhythm and blues, soul, and funk — the continuous thread of a tradition
that transformed with each new geography while maintaining its essential character.