1. Tin Pan Alley The center of “pop” music publishing from the late 1880’s to the 1920’s in New York City

2. Copyright  What is “it”?  Legal concept that gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it (usually for a limited period of time)

3. Copyrights Concept begins in 17 th century  King of England at the time was concerned about people copying books without him knowing it  Berne Convention (1886)-as soon as an original work is written, that work is copyrighted (wasn’t signed until 1989)

4. Copyright  Berne Convention: 1886  As soon as an original work is written or recorded – that work legally belongs to the author.  It’s a concept that’s enforced and accepted world wide

5. Back to Stephen Foster…  Remember – he COULD have been a millionaire  There were no “official” enforcement of copyrights until after he died  Printing press –  Invented almost 500 years before, but became widespread during the 19 th century because of  Industrial Revolution  Mass Production

6. What kind of $$$$?  “ Old Folks At Home”  100,000 copies  Each copy sold for 25 cents  $25,000

7. What kind of $$$$?  $25,000 off 1 piece of music  10% goes to the writer  $2,500  90% goes to the publisher  $22,500

8.  What’s wrong with this business scenario?  If you were a composer, how would you feel?

9. 1890’s Music Industry  Controlled by the major publishers  Major companies located in cities across country  Made their $ through “classical” music  Periodically issue “revisions”  Could reissue a “newly revised” version of Beethoven’s latest symphony, and bring in lots of $

10. 1890’s Music Industry  “Popular” music was published through a group of smaller firms, mainly located in…  New York City

11.  After the Civil War, over 25,000 new pianos a year were sold  By 1887, over 500,000 youths were studying piano  Demand for sheet music goes up, more publishers enter the market….

12.  As a result, the demand for sheet music grew rapidly and more and more publishers began to enter the market

13. How Tin Pan Alley Worked  Song composers were hired under contract giving the publisher exclusive rights to popular composer's works  Music was becoming more of an industry than an art

14. Advertisement  How does one get the word out about what you are publishing?

15.  Song Plugger: performers who worked in music shops playing the latest releases, similar to playing new CD releases in a record store today

16. A Song Plugger’s Day…  Morning: deliver a package of sheet music to a department store (Macy’s, for example)  AND Sing the songs continuously in the store to draw attention  Afternoon: travel to another department store, do the same  Evening: Perform at a local bar, maybe trying to convince a local singer to use one of his company’s songs in their act

17.  By the end of the century, a number of the more important publishers had offices on 28th street between 5th Avenue and Broadway.  This street (28th) became known as "Tin Pan Alley" "Tin Pan Alley"

18.  Each of the publishing houses had a “demo room” out front  Piano (with a musician) who would play that publisher’s music on a daily basis

19. History behind the name  A newspaper writer described the sound of the many pianos being pounded in publisher's demo rooms as if “hundreds of people were pounding on tin pans”…

20. Effects  A single song could now sell 1,000,000+ copies  Sheet music sold between 25-65 cents  Publishers started hiring composers, as opposed to the other way around  Birth of the “song plugger”

21. By 1910:  Publishing industry of pop songs triples  30,000,000 copies of sheet music sold annually  65 cents / copy…  $19 million / year industry

22.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4- gsdLSSQ0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4- gsdLSSQ0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4- gsdLSSQ0  And the lyrics….

23. Beyond Minstrel Shows  End of the 19 th century  Public interest moves from the minstrel show to vaudeville

24. Vaudeville  A series of performances on the stage:  Comedy  Jugglers  Acrobats  Singers  Dancers  Animal Acts..

25. Vaudeville Example

26.  Why do you think the public “mood” moved from minstrelsy to vaudeville?  What do you think the differences were?