The groundwork for Tin Pan Alley was laid in the late 1800s, after the Civil War, when piano and sheet music sales began to escalate. At the same time, copyright control on songs and melodies became regulated. By 1887, more than 500,000 American youths were studying the piano, according to the Parlor Songs website. This led to a boom in sheet music sales, and a growing number of publishers set up shop in New York City, the center of American culture and the arts. Pioneering sheet music publishers like Thomas B. Harms and Isadore Witmark set up shop in the city, with a focus on popular music. Others followed, and by the turn of the century, Tin Pan Alley was booming. The public bought sheet music in vast quantities, much as they would buy 78s, singles, LPs and CDs years down the road. Indeed, Charles K. Harris' "After The Ball," published in 1892, sold more than 5 million copies.
The section of 28th Street where these music publishers congregated soon became known as Tin Pan Alley. According to Parlor Songs, "the name is attributed to a newspaper writer named Monroe Rosenfeld who while staying in New York coined the term to symbolize the cacophony of the many pianos being pounded in publisher's demo rooms, which he characterized as sounding as though hundreds of people were pounding on tin pans." Rosenfield used the term in a series of articles he wrote and it quickly caught on.
Tin Pan Alley's fortunes continued to rise as the new century got under way, fueled in part by the advent of vaudeville. These live stage shows relied heavily on music, and Tin Pan Alley stepped up to the proverbial plate, realizing that huge amounts of money could be made from the sale of sheet music of songs popularized by these shows. Aspiring songwriters pounded the doors of the big sheet music publishers, hoping to be discovered--and many were, including Irving Berlin and Harry Von Tilzer ("And The Green Grass Grew All Around"). Tin Pan Alley also saw songwriters and publishers organize for more rights, chiefly in the area of copyright protection. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) was founded in 1914 and continues to represent those groups to this day.
Tin Pan Alley's success was not to last. The advent of both radio and the phonograph put a damper on sheet music sales, and the publishers of Tin Pan Alley soon took a backseat to the record companies that were selling recorded music, first 78s and then 45s and LPs. Music publishers still played an important role in the popular music industry, but the money they generated came more and more from royalties and less and less from sheet music. There's a plaque on 28th Street between Sixth and Fifth avenues, commemorating the impact of Tin Pan Alley on our popular culture, but the buildings that were home to the legendary Tin Pan Alley publishers and songwriters are up for sale and may be torn down to make room for modern high-rises.
Tin Pan Alley's legacy lives on today through the rich body of work the songwriters and music publishers produced throughout the late 1890s and early 1900s. Tin Pan Alley classics include "Shine On Harvest Moon," by Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, 1908; "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," by Albert Von Tilzer, also 1908; Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band," 1911; "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans," by Creamer and Turner Layton, 1922; "Yes, We Have No Bananas," by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn, 1923; "Ain't She Sweet," by Jack Yellen and Milton Ager,1927; and "Happy Days Are Here Again," also by Yellen and Ager, 1930.