| Tin Pan Alley is a term that is synonymous with | | | | that genre, thus immediately tapping into the |
| the American music publishing industry. But, is | | | | lucrative market. |
| there actually a Tin Pan Alley, how did it get its | | | | By the turn of the century many notable |
| name and why has it become a byword for the | | | | publishers had their offices on 28th Street |
| music industry? | | | | between Broadway and 5th Avenue, and this is |
| In the late nineteenth century, 25,000 pianos | | | | the area that became known as Tin Pan Alley. |
| were sold in the United States each year and, | | | | How it became to be known by that moniker is |
| with over half a million youngsters learning to play | | | | subject to a degree of urban legend, but the |
| the instrument, there was a huge demand for | | | | general consensus is that it is down to a visiting |
| sheet music. Indeed the clamour was so huge | | | | journalist by the name of Monroe Rosenfeld. He |
| that publishers rushed to enter the lucrative | | | | described the area as being drowned in a |
| market. Before long, 1885 publishers were | | | | cacophony of noise emanating from the many |
| scattered throughout the large cities of the | | | | producers' offices, sounding as though hundreds |
| continental USA, but during the last 15 years of | | | | of people were bashing tin pans. He used it |
| the century they all began to graduate towards | | | | several times in his newspaper articles in the early |
| New York as the city's prominence as the center | | | | twentieth century and the term stuck. |
| for the production of the musical arts grew. | | | | One of the earliest Tin Pan Alley success stories |
| It was here that publishers adopted new, | | | | was the composition 'After the Ball', written by |
| aggressive business practices and marketing | | | | Charles Harris, which sold close to six millions |
| techniques to achieve phenomenal sales. The | | | | copies of sheet music. Other well-known Tin Pan |
| publishers tied talented and popular composers to | | | | Alley compositions from the early 1900s include |
| exclusive contracts; they also conducted market | | | | 'Give My Regards to Broadway', 'Shine on Harvey |
| research seeking out which style of music was | | | | Moon' and 'Let Me Call you Sweetheart', to which |
| currently the most popular. Then they would task | | | | most people can hum the melodies and even |
| their contract composers to produce works in | | | | recite the words! |