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“I GOT RHYTHM”
THE GOLDEN AGE OF TIN PAN
ALLEY SONG
The Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley
Song
During the 1920s and 1930s, certain
characteristic musical structures and styles of
performance dominated popular song.
 Professional tunesmiths wrote some of the most
influential and commercially successful songs of
the period.
 The potential for fame and financial success on
a previously unknown scale lured composers and
lyricists with diverse skills and backgrounds.
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Irving Berlin (1888–1989)
Grew up poor in the Jewish ghetto of New
York City
 Began his career as a singing waiter
 Achieved his first success writing ragtimeinfluenced popular songs
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Richard Rodgers (1902–79)
Produced many of the finest songs of the
period, in collaboration with lyricists
Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II
 Was the college-educated son of a doctor
and a pianist
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Cole Porter (1891–1964)
Was born into a wealthy family in Indiana
 Studied classical music at Yale, Harvard,
and the Schola Cantorum in Paris
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George Gershwin (1898–1937)
The son of an immigrant leatherworker
 The songwriter who did the most to bridge
the gulf between art music and popular
music
 Studied European classical music but also
spent a great deal of time listening to jazz
musicians in New York City
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Jewish Immigrants
From Central and Eastern Europe
 Played a central role in the music business
during the early twentieth century as
composers, lyricists, performers,
publishers, and promoters
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Irving Berlin
Born Israel, or Isadore, Baline
The most productive, varied, and creative of the
Tin Pan Alley songwriters
 His professional songwriting career started
before World War I and continued into the
1960s.
 It has been said that Berlin often composed
from three to seven songs a week.
 In 1969, the catalog of Irving Berlin
compositions still available in print included 899
songs.
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Irving Berlin
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His most famous songs include
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band,”
“Blue Skies,”
“Cheek to Cheek,”
“There’s No Business Like Show Business,”
“White Christmas,” and
“God Bless America.”
Irving Berlin
Like many Tin Pan Alley composers, Berlin
was a European immigrant.
 He was born in Temun, Russia, in 1888.
 His family fled the anti-Jewish progrom
there in 1892.
 Began life in America in desperate poverty
 Began his career as a song plugger

“Alexander’s Ragtime Band”
Published in 1911
 The song that first brought Berlin mass
acclaim
 Actually had little to do with ragtime as
performed by the great black ragtime
pianists of the day
 Sold 1.5 million copies almost immediately
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Broadway and Film
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Berlin wrote songs for the Broadway stage and for sound
film.
“Blue Skies,” performed by Al Jolson in the first talkie,
The Jazz Singer
Wrote the entire score for the Marx Brothers’ debut
movie, The Cocoanuts, in 1929
The 1942 film Holiday Inn introduced “White Christmas.”
The 1946 Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun
Berlin was the most prolific and consistent of Tin Pan
Alley composers.
– His songwriting career spanned almost sixty years.
Tin Pan Alley Song Form
Song forms inherited from the nineteenth
century
 The AABA structure of “Jeanie with the
Light Brown Hair”
 Verse-and-chorus form of “After the Ball”
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– Verse-refrain form, with an AABA refrain
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Tin Pan Alley song form had two major
sections: the verse and the refrain/chorus.
Verse
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The verse usually sets up the dramatic
context or emotional tone of a song.
Verses were the most important part of
nineteenth-century popular songs.
They were regarded as mere
introductions by the 1920s.
Today, the verses of Tin Pan Alley songs
are rarely performed.
Refrain
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Today, this is what is generally considered the
“song.”
It is usually made up of four sections of equal
length:
1. “A”—the main melody, basic pattern of lyrics and a set of
chord changes to support them
2. The music of the “A” section is repeated with new lyrics,
often with slight variations
3. “The bridge”—new material, new melody, and new chord
changes
4. A melody and chords are repeated.
Listening: “My Blue Heaven,”
performed by Gene Austin (1927)
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Austin was one of the first “crooners”
– Singers who mastered the intimate style of singing made
possible with the electric microphone.
This recording was one of the bestselling records of the
era.
 Form: verse-refrain
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– Introduction
– Verse: two sections of equal length with nearly identical music
– Refrain: four sections, AABA—the “A” sections all end with the
words “my blue heaven”
– The “B” section, or “bridge” or “release,” provides variety.
Listening: “My Blue Heaven,”
performed by Gene Austin (1927)
The song depicts the deepest aspirations
of the Tin Pan Alley listening public.
 The lyrics poetically reinforce a familiar
and comfortable motif of the American
dream: home and family.
 Gene Austin’s performance reinforces the
sentiments expressed in the lyrics: quiet
intimacy and tranquility.
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Listening: “April Showers,”
performed by Al Jolson (1921)
This recording reveals the sound and style
of the premicrophone period.
 Jolson’s singing style reflects the
performance techniques used on the
vaudeville stage.
 His vocal style was declamatory rather
than lyrical.
 Form: verse-refrain (ABAC structure)
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What Are Tin Pan Alley Songs
About?
Predominately aimed at white, urban
middle- and upper-middle-class Americans
 Said little in the way of social or political
commentary
 Were generally escapist
 Privacy and romance
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Tin Pan Alley and Broadway
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Mutually beneficial relationship between
Tin Pan Alley Songs and Broadway
shows
Close proximity
Fruitful relationship in the 1920s and
1930s
The so-called Golden Age of Tin Pan
Alley song
Revues
Featured sequences of diverse skits,
songs, dances, and performers
 Shows that were obvious successors to
vaudeville, with titles such as “Follies” and
“Scandals,” remained popular with
audiences of the time.

Show Boat (1927)
The musical Show Boat (1927), with score by
Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein
II), was a tremendous success.
 Show Boat was, for its time, a musical show of
unprecedented seriousness and depth.
 There was an attempt in Show Boat to tie the
songs more obviously to specific characters and
situations.
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Musicals
Conceived as a highly integrated whole
 On the rise by the 1940s
 The partnership between Oscar
Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers,
beginning in 1943 with Oklahoma!, marks
the triumph of this conception.
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Rock ’n’ Roll
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When rock ’n’ roll took over the pop charts
in the later 1950s, the connection
between Broadway and mainstream
popular song had completely dissolved.
What Makes a Song a Standard?
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Standards
– Songs that remain an essential part of the
repertoire of today’s jazz musicians and pop
singers
– Possess a continuing appeal that surpasses
nostalgia
– Tin Pan Alley composers produced many
standards.
George Gershwin (1898–1937)
His songs set new standards in excellence
in terms of harmonic complexity and
melodic flow.
 More classically trained and ambitious
than other songwriters
 Sought and achieved success in the world
of concert music and popular music
 Influenced by jazz and blues
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Listening: “I Got Rhythm,”
written by George Gershwin
Performed by Ethel Merman
 An up-tempo (fast) Tin Pan Alley song
 Verse-refrain form
 Refrain
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– Syncopation
– Conveys a jazz-influenced flavor
– Shifts to a major key
– Unlike anything we have heard in the previous
Tin Pan Alley examples
Listening: “I Got Rhythm,”
written by George Gershwin
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Verse
– long, sets up the refrain
– Slow, flexible tempo
– In a minor key
– Straightforward rhythm—little syncopation
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Merman’s vocal style is similar to Al
Jolson’s. She is described as a “belter.”
Listening: “Embraceable You,”
written by George and Ira
Gershwin
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Performed by Nat King Cole (1943)
Instrumentation: trio of piano, guitar, and bass
The verse is omitted, after a brief instrumental
introduction.
– The refrain has an ABAC form (like that of April
Showers).
– ABAC form—played twice through
– Vocal by Cole first time
– Guitar solo second time on “A” and “B”
– Piano solo on “A,” vocal on “C”
Conclusion
Popular song both reflected and helped
shape the profound changes in American
society during the 1920s and 1930s.
 The intermixing of high and low cultures
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 The adoption of new technologies
 The expansion of corporate capitalism
 The increasingly intimate interaction of white and
black cultures during a period of virulent racism
 The emergence of a truly national popular culture
Conclusion
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Tin Pan Alley and the singing style
known as crooning were important
influences on rhythm & blues and rock
’n’ roll during the 1950s and 1960s.
Many Tin Pan Alley songs are still used
by contemporary jazz musicians as a
basis for improvising.