Music

A Dynamic Decade.

An explosive growth in the variety of musical styles marked American music during the 1940s. Electric blues, hard bop, serial music, folk opera, country swing, and show jazz were all innovations of the decade. Technology was in some way the catalyst of this growth, as a host of advances in musical media brought heretofore neglected styles to a broader audience, or, as in the case of the increased use of electric guitar, changed the instrumental presentation of existing musical styles. The boundaries between musical genres was fluid, and musicians swapped and fused styles. Musical experiments begun in the previous decade—especially in classical music—were completed in the 1940s. The impact of World War II on music was significant: classical music blossomed, infused with a host of expatriate European talent; swing became the soundtrack of the war; Broadway expanded to meet the demands of an enormous off-duty GI...