ABSTRACT
Wilder's title, “American Popular Song” with 1950 1 as the ending date of coverage, reflected a too-narrow but not inaccurate conception. Just before World War II, and just after it, one genre of popular music dominated. It was popular in the sense that it was familiar everywhere—at least to Whites from the working class and above in the social scale, and to some members of minority groups who lived in cities and went to the movies. This was the music that originated on Broadway or in New York, was used in films, was heard on coast-to-coast radio networks, and was issued as records by the major companies. It was the only popular music, other than patriotic songs and a few nineteenth-century songs, that had truly national exposure. It was also a genre that had a considerable degree of endorsement by tastemakers and “influentials” in the society. Although it was only twenty-five or thirty years old, it was thought of as settled in form, distinguished in quality, and worth taking seriously.
