Blues music emerged as an African American musical form related to both spirituals and work songs at the end of the nineteenth twentieth century and rapidly became popular across the cultures of the United States as blues sheet music began to appear in the early twentieth century. Though blues songs commonly expressed personal emotions and problems, they were also used to express despair at social injustice. Abel Meeropol, a Jewish poet who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Allen, wrote one of the most famous blues protest songs, "Strange Fruit," popularized by singer Billie Holiday. Meeropol first wrote it as a poem in reaction to the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana in 1930. Later he set his poem to music. Billy Holiday famously sang the song to close her performances, but her recording company, Columbia, refused to record it for fear of retaliation. Commodore Records agreed to produce it and it first appeared as a single in 1939.

在19世纪与20世纪之交，蓝调音乐以与灵歌和工作歌曲相关的美国黑人音乐形式出现，并在全美国文化中迅速流行，蓝调活页乐谱也于20世纪初随之产生。蓝调歌曲通常用来抒发个人情感和表达问题，也用来表达对社会不公的绝望。犹太诗人阿贝尔·米若波尔以刘易斯·艾伦为笔名，创作了最著名的蓝调抗议歌曲之一《Strange Fruit》，后来歌手比莉·荷莉戴唱红了这首歌。米若波尔最初把它写成了一首诗，是为了回应1930年印第安纳州“（两名黑人男子）托马斯·希普和亚伯兰·史密斯（受到指控）被私刑处死”的事件，后来他为这首诗作了歌曲。比莉·荷莉戴以这首歌作为她的退役歌曲，但她的唱片公司“哥伦比亚”却因害怕遭到报复而拒绝录制。“Commodore”唱片公司同意制作这首歌曲，并于1939年以单曲形式首次发行。

Prison laborers in the southern states, the majority of whom were African American and replaced slave labor after the Civil War, sang songs that complained about their plight. Work songs protesting prison conditions demonstrate the emergence of blues, such as "We Don't Have No Payday Here," sung by a group of convicts at Raiford Penitentiary in Florida. In another work song sung by prisioners at Raiford Penitentiary, "Take This Hammer," the first person character of the song not only compains about the work, but boldy says that he will flee. The "blues" quality is especially strong in this song, though it retains the qualities of a work song.

美国南部各州的监狱劳工大多数为黑人，在内战之后取代了奴隶劳工，他们常常通过歌曲来诉说自己的困境。抗议监狱条件的工作歌曲展示了蓝调的出现，例如佛罗里达州雷福德监狱的一群罪犯唱的《我们这里没有发薪日》。雷福德监狱的监狱成员唱的另一首工作歌曲《铁锤之歌》，这首歌的第一人称不仅表达了对工作的抱怨，并且大胆地说他会逃走。这首歌中，尽管保留了工作歌曲的特点，但“蓝调”特性依然尤为突出。

Another example of the use of blues to address social issues are found in African American songs about World War II. Bus Ezell's composition, "Obey the Ration Laws," urges people to comply with war-time rationing, but it also alludes to a difference in compliance and attitudes between poor and wealthy Americans.

另一个在美国黑人歌曲中使用蓝调来触及社会问题的例子，关乎第二次世界大战。巴斯·埃泽尔的作品《Obey the Ration Laws》（遵守定量法），敦促人们遵守战时的定量配给，但也暗示了美国穷人和富人在依从和态度上的差异。