Tin Pan Alley

by John Shepherd and John Shepherd

Book Overview

In Tin Pan Alley we see the beginnings of the pop world as we now know it: commercial, constantly capturing, exploiting or even occasionally creating a public mood. The Alleymen were workers as much as artists. This book, first published in 1982, explores how the change occurred, the ways in which songwriters organised themselves to get greater control over their products, the social circumstances that influenced their choice of subject-matter, the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0710009046
• ISBN13: 9780710009043
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul Books
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Grade Range: Kindergarten to Grade 6

Customer Reviews

Good introduction to largely-forgotten era of American music

At 154 pages, including index, this introduction to the genesis of the popular music industry in the United States is a very user-friendly guide to an era of American music history that has been largely forgotten, and yet the events of that period continue to shape all aspects -- from legal, to technological, to economic -- of the current pop-music megabusiness. The reader will learn about the origin of the phrase "Tin Pan Alley" (a very noisy street in New York), how early pop songs were written and marketed, the influence of vaudeville, the phonograph, the advent of Ragtime and Jazz, etc. This book is truly a gem, a wonderful record of the treasures in America's cultural attic. END