Social Context / Legacy

American blues music was very popular nationwide during the 1950s including famous artists like Chuck Barry and Bo Diddley. Cream’s ability to use the blues as a basis, arrange the music to accommodate the band-members abilities and incorporate rock elements, allowed the trio to bridge the American blues and their British rock popularity to become an international sensation (Hatch, 1990). Cream’s success can also be attributed to the growing white audiences interest in blues. The blues genre was predominantly recorded and listened to by African-Americans, but as recording studios started to use white performers to cover blues songs, they achieved much greater success. White artists were seen to be more marketable and they were able to get deals with major record labels over black artists.

Cream’s storied run ended at about two years when the three band members’ egos became too big to coexist. After the success of Wheels of Fire, Cream became one of the greatest “what if” stories in the history of rock. The lasting impact of Eric Clapton as a solo artist and his love for the blues can still be seen in popular music today. John Mayer, who was mentored by Clapton, incorporates a lot of blues guitar and the corresponding pedal effects in his music (Thompson, 2005).

Awards:

-Cream received a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2006

-Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 (Weinstein, 2013).

-Eric Clapton became the only triple inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work as a solo artist, with Cream, and with the Yardbirds (whereseric.com)