Tin Pan Alley Books

I just got back from Fort Collins! What does that have to do this with blog? Oh, well, because I picked up some books on Tin Pan Alley while I was there! I'm so glad that I database the publisher's addresses and names, because they are starting to paint a very clear picture of how Tin Pan Alley moved streets, and what publishers merged with other publishers when.

As I've started archiving, I've slowly started to learn some things that I had never known about. One of these things is Tin Pan Alley, which is where most of sheet music publishers wrote their music, and tried to plug it before there rather sudden collapse in the nineteen-fifties. So, basically, every piece of music I own before 1950 is a piece of Tin Pan Alley history, and it's very exciting!

If you're at all interested, you should pick up the appropriately titled Tin Pan Alley, by David A Jasen. From what I can tell, Jasen is pretty well one of the authorities on this era of music. It's pretty easy to get ahold of for fairly cheap, so check it out!