Tin Pan Alley
Americannoun
-
the district of a city, especially New York City, where most of the popular music is published.
-
the composers or publishers of popular music as a group.
noun
-
a district in a city concerned with the production of popular music, originally a small district in New York
-
derogatory the strictly commercial side of show business and pop music
Discover More
Tin Pan Alley is often associated with songwriters who are more interested in making money off their songs than in producing high-quality music.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He’s also the only Tin Pan Alley composer to give us a song that has become something close to our actual national anthem.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
He likened Clark’s skills to those of Johnny Mercer, the Tin Pan Alley icon who wrote “Moon River” and co-founded Capitol Records in 1942.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2024
His sensibility often seemed more aligned with Tin Pan Alley than with Bob Dylan, John Lennon and other writers who later emerged, but rock composers appreciated the depth of his seemingly old-fashioned sensibility.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 9, 2023
On an entertaining recording called “If It Wasn’t for the Irish and the Jews,” Mr. Moloney highlighted vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley collaborations between those two groups of immigrants in America.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2022
The songs are culled from folk, stage musicals, patriotic songs, Tin Pan Alley songs, culturally diverse songs, film songs, and religious songs.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
