Tin Pan Alley

In the latter part of the 1800s, a national craving for popular song developed into an industry. Prior to the introduction of recording and broadcasting technologies, the primary vehicle for the marketing of popular song was the sale of sheet music.

1. Musical entertainment in the late 19th century
   1. Public
   1. Opera, operettas, and other "legitimate theater"
   2. Instrumental concerts (orchestra, concert band, smaller ensembles)
   3. Dances (formal & informal)
   4. vaudeville
   2. Private
      1. individual singing or instrumental music
      2. singing around the family piano
2. Some public and almost all private performances depended on the sale of sheet music.
   1. Initially, sheet music was published as a sideline by companies that sold books, magazines, or stationary. They typically waited for composers to approach them, and sheet music was sold by traveling salesman who marketed a variety of goods.
   2. Some of the salesman began printing and selling their own compositions; some of the more successful included Julius and Jay Whitmark, Leo, Feist, Joseph Stern, and Harry von Tilzer. Music stores also began selling sheet music in stores.
   3. Crucial to the development of the new industry was promotion. Consumers were primarily interested in familiar songs; the success of a song depended on people hearing the piece on stage or in concert. Song "pluggers" were paid to perform the songs in a particular catalog, and "jobbers" - wholesalers who acted as selling agents for small publishers.
   4. The first song to sell over a million copies was "After the Ball," written by Charles K. Harris (possibly the first person to write and sell his own music). It was published in 1892.
3. The rise of the music publishing industry
   1. By this time, publishers actively sought writers and compositions to publish, and most employed professional writers.
   2. In 1891 the International Copyright Law was passed, protecting the rights of composers and publishers overseas. The Witmarks were among the first to establish European offices.
   3. In 1899 the New York Herald hired Monroe Rosenfeld (also a part-time composer) to write a series of articles on the flourishing business (still a primarily New York phenomenon at that point).
      1. Rosenfeld visited the offices of Harry von Tilzer, one of the publishers located on West 28th St.
      2. He compared the sound of so many pianos banging out tunes to tin pans and coined the phrase "Tin Pan Alley" to describe West 28th St., the home of so many music publishers.

4. Sheet music was valued not only for the songs themselves but also for the elaborate covers.

• Music That Americans Loved 100 Years Ago--Tin Pan Alley, Broadway Show Tunes, Ragtime (and Related "Coon Songs"), and Sousa Marches
  By Tim Gracyk
• A History of Tin Pan Alley by David Jasen
• A series of articles on the history of Tin Pan Alley by Lew Carter
• an excerpt from a biography of George Gershwin
• A PBS online article about "The Women of Tin Pan Alley"
• Parlor Songs

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