# What's a generic name for popular American music of the 1940s and 1950s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460 "2009-03-05T23:57:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/1 "2009-03-05T23:57:55Z")
We were talking the other night about various types of music that has been popular since the advent of radio. We discussed jazz, big band, boogie woogie, country, rock ‘n’ roll, rock, etc. But none of us could come up with a good name for the music of the 1940s and 1950s, the music that preceded rock ‘n’ roll. Music that primarily depended on a solo singer: Perry Como, Vaughn Monroe, Eddie Fisher, Dick Haymes, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, etc. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/2 "2009-03-06T00:06:26Z")
I’d just call it Pop Music. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/3 "2009-03-06T00:30:16Z")
A local radio station (now sadly defunct) that played this type of music called it Popular Standards. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/4 "2009-03-06T00:32:43Z")
Pop classics or classic pop perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![oliversarmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb8c5e/32.png) [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/5 "2009-03-06T00:45:58Z")
I think the term might be “standards,” or “pop standards.” Way back in the day, actually before I was born, popular music certainly had a distinction from classical. However – I’m not a music historian – and I don’t know if they had a word for popular music until rock 'n 'roll appeared. Then that type of music began to fragment from classical, pop, jazz, country and gospel and Billboard came up with different categories. Surely, a music historian is here to set the record straight. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/6 "2009-03-06T01:08:12Z")
“Standards,” including the more popular show tunes. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/7 "2009-03-06T02:21:45Z")
Yeah, I guess “standards.” Alternately, in a record store, you’d probably find most of this stuff under “easy listening.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/8 "2009-03-06T03:10:57Z")
Recently people have been referring to such songs as coming from “The Great American Songbook”: > **[Great American Songbook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Songbook)** > > The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant 20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes. > > According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/9 "2009-03-06T03:45:28Z")
Jazz. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/10 "2009-03-06T04:14:05Z")
Juke Box Music? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/11 "2009-03-06T05:55:16Z")
i got hooked on wqew i think it was maybe 15 years ago…1560 on your am dial in the new york city radio market…i believe that station is now radio disney. i seem to recall hearing the terms juke box radio, popular music, and even the great american songbook. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/12 "2009-03-06T13:07:44Z")
It’s definitely not jazz. And the problem with calling it “the great American songbook” or “standards” is that both of those tend to include the oeuvres of Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin – most of which predates this period by a couple of decades. That said, I have no better suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/13 "2009-03-06T13:12:22Z")
Then call it “the later parts of the Great American Songbook” or “the later popular standards.” That’s as close as we can get to a name for this stuff. The problem is that this type of music really doesn’t have a good name. It was basically just whatever was the mainstream popular music in the 1940’s and 1950’s. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/14 "2009-03-06T15:50:00Z")
I think you could have called it jazz in the '40s, because the big bands were the biggest thing at the time and most of these singers were introduced via various jazz bandleaders. By the '50s the prevailing sound is more orchestrated & more oriented around the singer; less swingy. My first answer to the OP is “classic pop” but Great American Songbook works too - and the latter is now used by non-Americans, so it’s an increasingly helpful term. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/15 "2009-03-06T16:02:26Z")
As to Gershwin, Porter et al predating the period by twenty years - that’s interesting to note, but we seem to have no problem calling things “rock” - for example, Jimi Hendrix and Kings of Leon - that are separated by 40 years… or calling both Etta James & Beyonce “R & B” though being well over 40 years apart. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/16 "2009-03-06T22:11:45Z")
My immediate thought upon reading the OP was “American Songbook” so that’s the answer I’m going with. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/17 "2009-03-07T05:12:12Z")
I have a small stack of Forties and Fifties music magazines. This was about the time that Swing was on the way out and the stuff you’re talking about was coming in. I remember that one article discusses the switch from “Swing” to “Sweet”. I’ll assume that “Sweet” was being used, at least in some circles, to describe the Doris Day, Pat Boone, Perry Como stuff. Pure syrup, as far as I’m concerned. Give me decent Swing or good old hard rock! ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/18 "2009-03-07T05:19:51Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > It’s definitely not jazz. Hmm. Well, to the extent that singers who are singing these titles today get to describe what they do in their own words, it \*is \*jazz. Every professional singer of “standards” that I have ever spoken to insists that the songs they sing are called _jazz_. Not lounge, not standards, not whatever else you want to name: they call themselves jazz singers and call the songs they sing jazz songs. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/19 "2009-03-07T05:34:54Z")
[Traditional pop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_pop) or standards. Much of it isn’t what I would call jazz, although it may be subject to jazz interpretations by many artists. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460/20 "2009-03-07T05:52:35Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > [Traditional pop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_pop) or standards. Much of it isn’t what I would call jazz, although it may be subject to jazz interpretations by many artists. Yeah, that’s probably closer to why singers insist on that nomenclature. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-generic-name-for-popular-american-music-of-the-1940s-and-1950s/488460.md?page=2)