Question

What is the reason there weren’t any bebop recordings made during the early 1940s?

Answer 1

Bebop originated as musicians’ music that is played by musicians with other money-making gigs who did not care about commercial potential of the new music. Hence, there weren’t any bebop recording made during the early 1940s because it did not attract the attention of major record labels nor was it intended to. Thus, some of the early bebop was recorded informally. Furthermore, formal recording of bebop was first performed for small specialty labels who were less concerned with mass-market appeal than the major labels in 1944.