Tin Pan Alley: The Birth of the Modern Music Industry

Description

The birth of the modern American music industry can be traced back to “Tin Pan Alley,” an iconic group of New York music songwriters and publishers that set up shop on West 28th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the Flower District of Manhattan. Between 1885 and 1930, thousands of songs were published every year as the publishing industry moved en masse to New York City. With affordable printing, high music literacy, the explosion of piano sales, and the dawn of recorded music, this window of time saw a fascinating evolution in American popular song with an evolving harmonic complexity and lyrical sophistication over the years. 

In this music history lecture course featuring recordings and live song performances by the instructor, we will explore this era of American music, the styles of music that emerged, and the composers, lyricists, and performers who came to represent the era. Through our exploration, we will ask ourselves: how did Tin Pan Alley set the foundations for the fast-paced pop music industry of today? How did the social realities of the time shape the industry and the songs it produced? We will discuss the Tin Pan Alley ethic—a drive for popularity above all else, and a focus on melody and lyrics and ephemeral popularity—and how it incentivized composers and lyricists to explore a wealth of subjects and genres in popular song, from ragtime to jazz and blues. 

We will also consider the influence of characters such as Cole Porter, the “rich rich,” highly literate writer from Peru, Indiana; Irving Berlin, who immigrated from Russia and lived on the streets before rising to become perhaps the most important songwriter in American history; Richard Rodgers, the gifted composer who, together with Lorenz Hart and, later, Oscar Hammerstein II, created some of the most enduring Broadway songs of all time. Tin Pan Alley also included notable Canadians who relocated south to join in on the action, including Shelton Brooks, who wrote Sophie Tucker’s signature songs, and Geoffrey O’Hara, who had the biggest hit of the late World War I period.

We will discuss the guerilla-style marketing of the time, including the first use of images to promote songs—and how every possible method was exhausted to chase success.

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