Lecture 4: The Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley

Question 1

Songs pre WWI

Answer 1

• sentimental songs - well mannered, nostalgic, kept popular by fear of change
• ragtime songs - syncopated, novelty/excitement. Pure ragtime is instrumental, considered rebellious bc it represented african american culture

Question 2

golden age (1920s-1930s)

Answer 2

• ragtime and jazz dominated
• africinazation of music combined with tin pan alley songs to create hits

Question 3

composers of the golden age

Answer 3

• berlin, rogers, proter, cershwin

Question 4

tin pan alley and broadway

Answer 4

• a symbiotic relationship
• tin pan alley created product, broadway had demand
• broadway did not have original music, music started to be written specifically for broadway

Question 5

tin pan alley song form

Answer 5

• AABA and ballad tradition (verse + chorus) = new form
• verse, AABA (verse became an introduction, usually forgotten now)

Question 6

tin pan alley songs examples

Answer 6

• deed I do (ruth etting)
• somewhere over the rainbow (judy garland)
• i got rhythm (G. and I. gershwin)

Question 7

standards

Answer 7

essential part of jazz/pop collection of important early 20th century songs, tin pan alley songs, songs that endure

Question 8

subject matter of tin pan alley songs

Answer 8

• no dark themes, only escapist content (this was during the great depression)
• romantic love, domestic bliss
• privacy - private listening and invention of microphones in the 1920s, illusion of private performance

Question 9

crooners vs vaudville

Answer 9

vaudville: youre being at
- crooners: youre being sung to

Question 10

notable crooners of the day

Answer 10

• ruth etting
• bing crosby
• gene austin

Question 11

Important songs

Answer 11

-deed i do(Tin pan alley form)
-I got rhythm(standards)
-my blue heaven (crooner)
-april showers (not a crooner)