Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song

Tin Pan Alley was a nickname given to an actual street in Manhattan (West Twenty-eighth Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue) where many of the music publishers had their offices. Eventually, Tin Pan Alley became the generic term for publishers of popular American sheet music. These publishing businesses hired lyricists and composers to create popular songs and promoted these songs in their sheet-music form with attractive covers.