Ongoing History Daily: What was "Tin Pan Alley?"

In your wanderings through the history of music, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Tin Pan Alley.” What the heck was that?

Back in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century, writing songs was seen as the job of specialized professionals. They would write the songs and then other people would work to convince popular performers of the day to perform those songs, in hopes that they would become popular and people would buy sheet music versions so they could play the songs themselves. (This was obviously in the days before records caught on.)

Many of those songwriting professionals ended up gathering in a specific area of New York City, first along Union Square and then part of West 28^th Street between 6^th and 7^th Avenues. This stretch was nicknamed “Tin Pan Alley” because the sound of all these people writing songs on their pianos sounded like someone banging a lot of cooking pots together.

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