Various - A Rhythm and Blues Chronology 2: 1942-1944

Volume two: 1942-1944. Rhythm and Blues was not generally recognised as a distinct musical genre until the years following the end of World War II. These 4CD sets centred on 1940-1944 attempt to pinpoint records typical of the various strands of music which coalesced into what can now be seen as a historically definable form of black popular music, commonly abbreviated to R&B. Previously, the American record industry had marketed blues, jazz, jug band, hokum, sacred and novelty music under the catch-all phrase, race music. After the war, an increasing sensitivity to racism generated the need for a new term which emerged from a renaming of Billboard's Best Selling Retail Rhythm And Blues Records.