It was not long after the 1930s commenced that such baritone singers

"It" in A does not have to have a referent.

Sentences can start with it and have no grammatical error.

It was very cold today.
It was a terrible day for the stock market.

Neither of these sentences are incorrocet.

Hello expert,
I have selected option 'e' because in this sentence, we have sequence of events , first event is..singers have contributed to popularization and second event is... because of their contribution, singing came to be called crooning, and as we know, past perfect is majorly used to explain the sequence clearly, for this reason, i have selected option e

Please explain, where i am wrong?
Is it like, option a also clearly explains the sequence without the use of past perfect and uses correct preposition after contribute, that is, contributed to..
Is this the correct reason for selection of option 'a' ?

Yes, that is one reason - but the main problem is the verb "commenced". Since "contributed" occurred after "commenced", using past perfect for "contributed" would be wrong.

It was not long after the 1930s commenced that such baritone singers as Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo contributed to the popularization of a type of romantic, soothing singing that came to be called “crooning.”



One doesn't have to break heads to solve this issue if one chooses to look for some basic tenets.

1. You do need 'as' or 'such as' to denote examples. Drop C and D.
2. the correct idiom is 'contribute to', not 'contribute in'- dump B and E.

Only A is left; take it.

Such as is used for introducing examples, while like is for comparisons only. 'As' by it self is for comparison or function but not examples

As is also used an adverb in the meaning of 'for instance, to denote examples. India has many cites over a population of 10 million as Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai or even s in beautiful flowers as roses
For more dictionary info, Pl refer to
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/as

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The original sentence correctly uses the simple past tense “contributed” to refer to an event that occurred in the past. Furthermore, the original sentence correctly uses “such as” to refer to specific baritone singers who made a contribution to the popularization of the “crooning” style of singing.

(A) CORRECT. As explained above, this choice uses the proper verb tense and is idiomatically correct.

(B) This choice is wordy, awkward, and redundant. Since the 1930s is a decade, there is no reason to state “of the decade.” Similarly, if baritone singers such as Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo contributed, it is unnecessary to say they “decided” to contribute. Furthermore, this choice makes two errors in idiomatic construction: the “and also” construction is unidiomatic – the word “also” should be eliminated, and “contribute in” should be “contribute to.”

(C) This choice uses the unidiomatic “like” to refer to specific baritone singers. On the GMAT, “like” means “similar to,” while “such as” refers to specific examples.

(D) Stating “the beginning of the 1930s commencement” is redundant, since “beginning” and “commencement” are synonyms. Furthermore, this choice incorrectly uses “like” instead of the idiomatic "such as" to refer to specific baritone singers. Finally, it incorrectly shifts to the past perfect “had contributed,” which would only be correct if they “had contributed” prior to some other action in the simple past tense; here there is no such simple past tense verb.

(E) In this choice, “contributed in” is unidiomatic; the proper construction is “contributed to.” Furthermore, this choice incorrectly uses the past perfect “had contributed,” which would only be correct if they “had contributed” prior to some other action in the simple past tense, such as “the 1930s commenced.” This verb tense usage reverses the intended order of events: this choice clearly indicates that they contributed “not long after” the 1930s commenced.

first the music was popularized. then it was called 'crooning'. So why is 'had contributed' wrong since it's the earlier event compared to the recognition of the music as 'crooning'?