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Central to Hendrix’s work is the blues, which has laid the foundation for countless genres. The evolution of the electric guitar can be traced back to early pioneers like Charlie Christian and then to influential blues musicians such as Muddy Waters and B.B. King. This first wave of guitarists defined the vocabulary that would evolve into rock and roll.
In the early 1960s, British musicians began to reinterpret this blues sound, creating a new wave of rock bands that accelerated the tempo and amplified the heaviness. As these British acts found success, they began to generate their own distinct twist on the traditional blues.