1940 |
- Disney's "Fantasia" introduces stereo sound
- Pete Seeger forms the Almanac Singers to sing protest songs with communist overtones
- Keynote is founded by Eric Bernay
|
1941 |
- Arkansas' radio station KFFA hires Sonny Boy Williamson to advertise groceries, the first case of mass exposure by blues singers
- "La Discotheque" opens in paris, a club devoted to jazz music
|
1942 |
- Bing Crosby's White Christmas becomes the best-selling song of all time (and will remain so for 50 years)
- Los Angeles bluesman T-Bone Walker incorporates jazz chords into the blues guitar with I Got A Break Baby
- Capitol is founded in Hollywood, the first major music company which is not based in New York
- Savoy is founded in Newark (NJ) by by Herman Lubinsky to promote black music
|
1943 |
- The first "disc jockeys" follow the American troops abroad
- The USA army introduces V-Discs that play six minutes of music per side
- Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein produce the musical Oklahoma that uses choreographer Agnes de Mille to design the ballets
- King is founded in Cincinnati by Sydney Nathan to promote black music
|
1945 |
- Les Paul invents "echo delay", "multi-tracking" and many other studio techniques
- Sam Hoffman plays the theremin in film soundtracks
- White bluesman Johnny Otis assembles a combo for Harlem Nocturne that is basically a shrunk-down version of the big-bands of swing
- Mercury is founded in Chicago
- Jules Bihari founds Modern Records in Los Angeles, specializing in black music
- Bill Monroe's Kentucky Waltz popularizes the "bluegrass" style ⇐
|
1946 |
- Louis Jordan launches "jump blues" with Choo Choo Ch'Boogie
- Muddy Waters cuts the first records of Chicago's electric blues (rhythm and blues) ⇐
- Carl Hogan plays a powerful guitar riff on Louis Jordan's Ain't That Just Like a Woman
- Damstadt in Germany sets up a school for avantgarde composers
- Raymond Scott founds "Manhattan Research", the world's first electronic music studio
- Lew Chudd founds Imperial Records in Los Angeles, specializing in black music
- The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film company opens a recording business to sell their movie soundtracks
- Specialty Records is founded by Art Rupe in Los Angeles to specialize in black popular music
|
1947 |
- Billboard's writer Jerry Wexler coins the term "rhythm and blues" for Chicago's electric blues
- Roy Brown writes and cuts Good Rockin' Tonight in Texas
- Six majors control the music market: Columbia, RCA Victor, Decca, Capitol, MGM, Mercury
- The Hollywood-based tv program of Korla Pandit (John Redd), pretending to be an Indian guru and playing a Hammond organ, publicizes exotic sounds
- Chess Records is founded in Chicago by two Polish-born Jews to promote rhythm and blues
- Ahmet Ertegun founds Atlantic in New York to promote black music at the border between jazz, rhythm and blues and pop
|
1948 |
- Pete Seeger forms the Weavers, which start the "folk revival"
- Detroit rhythm'n'blues saxophonist Wild Bill Moore releases We're Gonna Rock We're Gonna Roll
- Columbia introduces the 12-inch 33-1/3 RPM long-playing vinyl record that can play 20 minutes on each side, invented by Peter Goldmark
- Pierre Schaeffer creates a laboratory for "musique concrete" in Paris and performs a concerto for noises ⇐
- Rodgers & Hammerstein's Tale Of The South Pacific introduces exotic sounds to Broadway
- Leo Fender introduces its electric guitar (later renamed Telecaster)
- Moe Asch founds Folkways, devoted to folk music
- Ed Sullivan starts a variety show on national television (later renamed "Ed Sullivan Show")
- Homer Dudley invents the Vocoder (Voice Operated recorder)
- Memphis' radio station WDIA hires Nat Williams, the first black disc jockey
- The magazine "Billboard" introduces charts for "folk" and "race" records
|
1949 |
- Moondog virtually invents every future genre of rock music
- Fats Domino cuts The Fat Man, a new kind of boogie
- Hank Williams' Lovesick Blues reaches the top of the country charts
- Scatman Crothers cuts I Want To Rock And Roll (1949), with Wild Bill Moore on saxophone
- RCA Victor introduces the 45 RPM vinyl record
- Fantasy is founded
- Todd Storz of the KOWH radio station starts the "Top 40" radio program
- The "Billboard" chart for "race" records becomes the chart for "rhythm and blues" records
- German physicist Werner Meyer-Eppler publishes the book "Elektronische Klangerzeugung", about making music by purely electronic devices
- Aristocrat changes its name to Chess
|