MU121 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Country Music, Play Records, Thirty-Two-Bar Form
Document Summary
Building a national audience for music and entertainment. In the first half of the twentieth century, sheet music was the principal method of selling music. The business was concentrated in an informal district of nyc referred to as tin pan alley. The area got its name from the high concentration of songwriters plunking out their ideas on rows of pianos. Many of these songs use a sectional verse-chorus format the chorus is the part of the song listeners are likely to recognize, while the verse is an introduction that sets the scene for the song. Choruses are cast in a 32 measure aaba form ex. The basic unit of trade was the song itself, not a specific recording of the song. More versions of the song caused the songwriter and publisher to earn more money. The usual path to popularizing a song was convincing a professional to perform the tune as part of a show.
