When I’m having an off day, saying I’m “feeling blue” is the easiest way to quickly communicate my state of mind. It works as an explanation because I might not want to get too deep into why I’m sad, but it helps to explain that I’m not at my best. As a color, blue has different connotations, but “feeling blue” is a general sentiment of sadness, which comes from many sources.
In color theory, blue generates feelings of calmness and relaxation — maybe calling to mind a tranquil body of water or a calm sky. Since scientists have also found that blue inspires feelings of reliability, businesses often choose to use blue in their company logos. And yet at the same time, the word “blue” representing a feeling of sadness dates back to Chaucer’s poetry in the 1300s. The physical condition of black and blue skin, caused by a bruise, could be an origin of the metaphor of feeling blue, and writers used to call a depressive or melancholy feeling the “blue devil,” all the way back in the 1700s.
“The blues” referred to sadness as far as back 1741, but the expression really took off with the rise of the blues music genre. In the 1860s, several musical styles coalesced to form the blues, which developed in the rural U.S. south out of African American folk songs. The genre found a wider audience in the 1940s as Black people migrated to cities. A blues song has a characteristic sad sound, built on the blues scale with minor notes on the third and fifth. The thudding bass line and percussion also give the genre its signature groove. Blues lyrics tended to focus on general hardships and the things in life that were getting the singer down emotionally.
When the events of the day have you feeling blue, play some music from one of the blues greats — Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith — or a modern practitioner such as Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, or Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. You may still be feeling blue, but the music will be singing to your emotions.
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