Muddy Waters' genre is BLUES. BLUES is a genre of music that originated in the African-American communities of the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is characterized by its use of the BLUES scale and specific chord progressions, as well as specific lyrics and song forms. Muddy Waters was an influential American BLUES musician who was born in Mississippi in 1915 and is considered one of the pioneers of the Chicago BLUES sound.