Tin Pan Alley: The American Songbook
- Music History Hall
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
The Gilded Age to The Jazz Age
New York City, along with the rest of the country, entered a transformative period in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century – 1880s to 1930s. It was an era of rapid industrialization and modernization with the planning of the New York City subway system, the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, and the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty in 1886.
Between 1880 and 1920, over 20 million immigrants arrived in the United States. About 3 million European Jews emigrated from Russia and Eastern Europe. Immigrants flowed through Ellis Island until the National Origins Act was passed in 1924, which established quotas that limited immigration. Most Jewish immigrants settled in New York City, initially in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
The Vaudeville Era originated in France. Building on Minstrel shows, the Vaudeville spectacles were a popular form of entertainment in the United States from the 1890s until the 1930s. The shows encompassed a variety of entertainment with multiple acts like magicians, acrobats, comedians, trained animal acts, jugglers, singers, and dancers. Ornate theaters were built in cities across the country to accommodate the traveling Vaudeville shows including the Orpheum Theaters. The Palace Theatre in New York City was an outstanding vaudeville house from 1913 to 1932.
The Ziegfeld Follies were extravagant shows that were precursors to the American Musical. The Follies were chic, stylized extravaganzas with beautiful sets, gorgeous women, and comedy sketches.
The first American musical play opened on Broadway in 1927 by Florenze Ziegfeld. It was called Showboat and included a popular song, Ol Man River. It told an American story about a showboat traveling up the Mississippi River. Suddenly, the musical could say something.
When the Vaudeville and Broadway show performers needed songs, they came to Tin Pan Alley. The songwriters of Tin Pan Alley aimed to place their songs in popular shows to sell sheet music. During this period, many people owned a piano. People gathered around the piano and played music in their homes. Sheet music had beautifully designed covers with intricate illustrations.
Irving Berlin and George & Ira Gershwin were the most successful songwriters of Tin Pan Alley and titans of American music who shaped the Great American Songbook.
