After World War II, many jazz musicians moved in other directions, less concerned with record sales than with artistic achievement and instrumental virtuosity.

The singers who had appeared with big bands became even bigger celebrities in their own right, overshadowing bandleaders who had formerly enjoyed the spotlight.

Race music was renamed “rhythm & blues” (R&B) by the record industry and maintained its function as social dance music. R&B came to dominate musical taste in African American communities during the postwar era.

Hillbilly music became “country and western,” continued its move to the city, and accounted for an increasing share of the market.

The decade following World War II saw important changes in the popular music business:

The introduction of new technologies such as tape recording

The “covering” of R&B and country and western songs by mainstream pop artists

The entertainment industry’s increasingly sophisticated application of marketing techniques aimed increasingly at youth

All of these were preconditions for the rise of rock ’n’ roll and the rapid transformation of American popular music that took place in the mid-1950s.