Although Tin Pan Alley did exist as a physical location, on 28th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway in New York City, it represents much more than that. Tin Pan Alley also epitomized the shift from selling sheet music primarily to professional performers to making it a significant part of popular culture.
As New York became the hub of the new music publishing industry, producers and publishers contracted with popular composers for the exclusive rights to the works of composers and lyricists, surveying popular tastes and commissioning works in those styles. Music shop employees then "plugged" the songs by performing them for customers to encourage the purchase of the sheet music.
The names of many Tin Pan Alley musicians and lyricists are familiar. Irving Berlin, George Cohan, Hoagy Carmichael, George and Ira Gershwin, Scott Joplin and Cole Porter were part of the Tin Pan Alley phenomenon. Popular songs from the period include "White Christmas," "Over the Rainbow," "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" and "The Sidewalks of New York." Others include "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "By the Light of the Silvery Moon," "Down by the Old Mill Stream" and "Bicycle Built for Two."
Because the producers of Tin Pan Alley solicited songs based on popular styles, as jazz and blues gained popularity, Tin Pan Alley facilitated the racial blending of artistic styles. White musicians adopted African-American styles and techniques. In addition, the publishers made sheet music for popular songs readily available to amateur musicians.
Although no longer a conscious part of the popular culture, the songs from Tin Pan Alley are part of what Michael G. Garber calls "embedded popular culture" in his article "Why Tin Pan Alley Matters." According to Garber, the songs remain a part of the universal American memory through the use of the music in advertising and cartoons and the lyrics in headlines and cultural references.