Genres that debuted or were popular in this decade:
Musicians
- The Andrews Sisters
- Louis Armstrong
- Gene Autry
- Béla Bartók. Composed his masterpiece "Concerto For Orchestra" and then died in 1945.
- Lead Belly
- Irving Berlin
- 1946 - Annie Get Your Gun
- Leonard Bernstein
- 1944 - On the Town
- John Cage
- Cab Calloway
- Ray Charles. Debuted in the 1940s. First chart hit in 1953.
- Nat King Cole
- Aaron Copland
- Bing Crosby
- 1945 - Merry Christmas
- Celia Cruz
- Miles Davis. Debuted in the 1940s.
- Eric Dolphy
- Duke Ellington
- Eddie Fisher. Started his career crooning with bands in 1946–48.
- Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill
- 1941 - Lady in the Dark
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Woody Guthrie
- 1940 - Dust Bowl Ballads
- Edgar Yipsel "Yip" Harburg and Burton Lane
- 1947 - Finian's Rainbow
- Billie Holiday
- Howlin' Wolf
- The Ink Spots
- Spike Jones
- B.B. King. Started in this decade with his first 2 singles released in 1949.
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold
- Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
- 1947 - Brigadoon
- John Lee Hooker: Debuted single in 1948.
- Vera Lynn
- Johnny Marks
- Glenn Miller
- Charles Mingus
- Ogden Nash and Kurt Weill
- 1943 - One Touch of Venus
- Alfred Newman
- Lionel Newman
- Charlie Parker
- Les Paul. The original electric guitar hero pioneered studio overdubbing upon his return from World War II, reaching stardom both solo and with wife Mary Ford.
- Édith Piaf
- Cole Porter
- 1948 - Kiss Me, Kate
- Tito Puente
- Sergei Rachmaninoff
- Django Reinhardt
- Roy Rogers
- Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 1943 - Oklahoma!
- 1945 - Carousel
- 1949 - South Pacific
- Ravi Shankar
- Dinah Shore
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- Frank Sinatra
- Igor Stravinsky
- Jule Styne and Leo Robin
- 1949 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (theatre adaptation)
- Sun Ra
- Art Tatum
- Edgard Varèse
- Sarah Vaughan
- Fats Waller continued playing and recording music until his death in 1941.
- Muddy Waters
- Hank Williams
- Kurt Weill
Songs
