Tin Pan Alley
Americannoun
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the district of a city, especially New York City, where most of the popular music is published.
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the composers or publishers of popular music as a group.
noun
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a district in a city concerned with the production of popular music, originally a small district in New York
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derogatory the strictly commercial side of show business and pop music
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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.
Hints of Cuban clave rhythms, Tin Pan Alley harmonies, Jewish melodies and piano licks swim through its overarching Romantic theme.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 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
You don’t hear much about Hoagy Carmichael these days, even if the prolific Tin Pan Alley songwriter is never too far.
From New York Times • Dec. 16, 2022
It was almost harking back to the Tin Pan Alley days, where no-one trusted you to do your own thing.
From BBC • Mar. 3, 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.
