Tin Pan Alley What
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Tin Pan Alley What is? a length of street in New York 28th between 6th and Broadway Popular song writing and publishing business Music publisher Administers the copyright Coordinates publication Negotiates royalties w recording Early song publishers - variety of music U.S. copyright act of 1831 – expanded legal protection to musical composition this amounted to reproduction rights – what the customer did with the music after they bought it was none of the business of the publisher Parlour song middle class women music was part of their domestic labours parents would send their daughters to piano lessons partly to make them more desirable mates piano - mass production symbol of middle-class prosperity an entertainment centre for the home family singalongs or mother might entertain with instrumental pieces, or solo songs these women bought songs that spoke to them celebrations of domesticity "Home Sweet Home" Sing Tin Pan Alley travelling salesmen began to publish write their own songs "After The Ball" 1892 Charles K. Harris sold more than 2 million copies in just a few years – eventually 5 million the success of this story of misunderstanding and lost love brought in a vogue for sentimental tearjerkers in waltz time "Only A Bird In A Gilded Cage" TPA innovations 1. specialized in popular songs music publishers - staff songwriters 9-5 job usually a composer and a lyricist in a small room cutthroat business completely concerned with getting hits and making money not lasting art - this was "Tin Pan Alley" after all - name story 2. Market research popular culture - the Oldsmobile model of car first built in 1897 - first mass-produced car - about 500 a yearly 1905 it was the best selling automobile what did the car represent to young people at the time? privacy sex (euphemistically disguised) “In My Merry Oldsmobile” 1905 Standardization the song framework - a kind of industrial mold four-line stanzas 8 bar sections - repeating and contrasting material AB - Home Sweet Home AABA - 3. Aggressive Promotion song pluggers - inducements to singers incl. songwriting credit "booming" - buying dozens of tickets for shows, infiltrating the audience and then singing the song to be plugged Copyright Act of 1909 granted performance rights mechanical rights ASCAP a kind of legal cartel of ownership and production of popular songs period between the world wars seen as the peak of TPA dominated by Jewish-American songwriters many first gen immigrants escaping persecution, particularly in Russia had made up a tiny percentage of the American population, mostly centred in New Orleans and New York – 80,000 Jewish people by the 1880s had a strong presence in early TPA as songwriters and publishers after the assassination of Russian Czar Alexander II in 1881 Alex II had kept control of anti-Semitism in Russia. Alex III did not attacks on villages – violence, seizure of property Jews fled Russia by the millions US allowed several million to emigrate by 1910 over 1 million in NYC alone – a quarter of the population what about the songwriter? Irving Berlin "Alexander's ragtime band" Berlin's songwriting rules Irving Berlin famously put it in his “9 Rules for Successful Songwriting” (American Magazine, 1920): 1. The melody must be within the average voice of the average singer. 2. The title must be planted throughout the song via use of repetition. 3. The idea and lyric must be appropriate for both sexes…so that both will want to sing it. 4. The song should contain ‘heart interest’ (pathos) even for a comic song. 5. The song must be original… success is not accomplished…by imitating the hit song of the moment. (he frequently imitated other songs, including his own) 6. Your lyric must deal with ideas, objects or emotions known to everyone. 7. The lyric must be euphonious: simple and pleasing to the ear. 8. Your song must be perfectly simple. 9. The songwriter must look upon his work as a business. Depression - exodus to Hollywood the publishing houses moved - many acquired by movie studios Irving Berlin - "Cheek To Cheek" for Top Hat (1935) Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Berlin is adapting the new, smoother 30s music but the song takes a back stage to the dance the song has aged well still performed widely by jazz singers meanwhile ASCAP was trying to make up for revenue losses during the depression license fee increases Between 1931 and 1939, ASCAP increased royalty rates charged to broadcasters some 448% ASCAP ban In 1940 - ASCAP tried to double its license fees boycott - competing royalty agency, Broadcast (BMI). BMI was much more democratic in the art that it would include within its repertoire, including African American music for the first time During a ten-month period from January 1 to October 29, 1941, no music licensed by ASCAP (1,250,000 songs) was broadcast on NBC nor CBS radio stations. Instead, the stations played songs in the public domain, regional music and styles (like rhythm and blues or country) that had been traditionally disdained by ASCAP. ASCAP finally settled for a lower fee Rock and roll and ASCAP outsiders - like Otis Blackwell BMI affiliated who just happened to write some of Elvis Presley's biggest hits, like "Don't Be Cruel" "All Shook Up" "Return To Sender" the music business establishment - ASCAP, remnants of TPA responds in two ways - Payola hearings Brill Building built for stockbrokers just before the market crash of 1929 that kicked off the Great Depression in 1962 it held 162 music businesses. new song publishers like Don Kirshner's Aldon Music specialized in songs for teenage consumption Carole King: Every day we squeezed into our respective cubby holes with just enough room for a piano, a bench, and maybe a chair for the lyricist if you were lucky. You'd sit there and write and you could hear someone in the next cubby hole composing a song exactly like yours. The pressure in the Brill Building was really terrific—because Donny (Kirshner) would play one songwriter against another. He'd say: "We need a new smash hit"—and we'd all go back and write a song and the next day we'd each audition for Bobby Vee's producer. "Then He Kissed Me" continues today internet debate over control of content akin to the ASCAP ban meanwhile, Tin Pan Alley has largely moved to Sweden some of the biggest hits of the last decade no longer centralized in New York songs are pieced together using computers real time collaborations over the internet between far-flung locations major albums - writer's camps Conclusion: the music has changed but the principles of TPA still hold today: market research melody analysis industrial sameness - loop model aggressive promotion licensing tie-ins to advertising .