Tin Pan Alley

The center of “pop” music publishing from the late 1880’s to the 1920’s in New York City

Copyright

What is “it”?

Legal concept that gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it (usually for a limited period of time)

Copyrights

Concept begins in 17th centuryKing of England at the time was

concerned about people copying books without him knowing it

Berne Convention (1886)-as soon as an original work is written, that work is copyrighted (wasn’t signed until 1989)

Copyright

Berne Convention: 1886 As soon as an original work is written or

recorded – that work legally belongs to the author.

It’s a concept that’s enforced and accepted world wide

Back to Stephen Foster… Remember – he COULD have been a

millionaire There were no “official” enforcement of

copyrights until after he died Printing press –

Invented almost 500 years before, but became widespread during the 19th century because of

Industrial Revolution Mass Production

What kind of $$$$?

“Old Folks At Home” 100,000 copies

Each copy sold for 25 cents

$25,000

What kind of $$$$?

$25,000 off 1 piece of music10% goes to the writer$2,50090% goes to the publisher$22,500

What’s wrong with this business scenario?

If you were a composer, how would you feel?

1890’s Music Industry Controlled by the major publishers Major companies located in cities

across country Made their $ through “classical”

music Periodically issue “revisions” Could reissue a “newly revised”

version of Beethoven’s latest symphony, and bring in lots of $

1890’s Music Industry

“Popular” music was published through a group of smaller firms, mainly located in…

New York City

After the Civil War, over 25,000 new pianos a year were sold

By 1887, over 500,000 youths were studying piano

Demand for sheet music goes up, more publishers enter the market….

How Tin Pan Alley Worked

Song composers were hired under contract giving the publisher exclusive rights to popular composer's works

Music was becoming more of an industry than an art

Advertisement

How does one get the word out about what you are publishing?

Song Plugger: performers who worked in music shops playing the latest releases, similar to playing new CD releases in a record store today

A Song Plugger’s Day… Morning: deliver a package of sheet

music to a department store (Macy’s, for example)

AND Sing the songs continuously in the store to draw attention

Afternoon: travel to another department store, do the same

Evening: Perform at a local bar, maybe trying to convince a local singer to use one of his company’s songs in their act

By the end of the century, a number of the more important publishers had offices on 28th street between 5th Avenue and Broadway.

This street (28th)

became known as

"Tin Pan Alley"

Each of the publishing houses had a “demo room” out front

Piano (with a musician) who would play that publisher’s music on a daily basis

History behind the name

A newspaper writer described the sound of the many pianos being pounded in publisher's demo rooms as if “hundreds of people were pounding on tin pans”…

Effects

A single song could now sell 1,000,000+ copies

Sheet music sold between 25-65 cents

Publishers started hiring composers, as opposed to the other way around

Birth of the “song plugger”

By 1910:

Publishing industry of pop songs triples 30,000,000 copies of sheet music sold

annually 65 cents / copy… $19 million / year industry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4-gsdLSSQ0

And the lyrics….

Beyond Minstrel Shows

End of the 19th century

Public interest moves from the minstrel show to vaudeville

Vaudeville A series of performances on the stage:

Comedy Jugglers Acrobats Singers Dancers Animal Acts..

Vaudeville Example

Why do you think the public “mood” moved from minstrelsy to vaudeville?

What do you think the differences were?