https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2019/11/the-life-and-death-of-the-american-song-book/
Between about 1920 and 1960, American composers transformed the nature of popular music through an unparalleled array of songs which became known throughout the world, publicised by sheet music, musicals, radio, films and by the big bands of the era. Hallmarked by melodies and lyrics which could be sung and were memorable, this world of popular music has become known as “The Great American Song Book”, and was quite unlike the popular music which preceded it or the rock-and-roll which replaced it. It was peculiarly American, and in many respects was the earliest product of American popular culture to become internationally known. Above all, the best of these songs were unforgettable and beautifully written and crafted, and their most famous composers were seemingly able to churn out hit songs at will. “The Great American Song Book” lasted for only forty years or so, and then largely disappeared. It is well worth considering its place in popular culture.
This music emerged from New York, the popular-music capital of the world, and specifically from the sheet music and piano roll publishers centred on West 28th Street in midtown Manhattan, known then and since as “Tin Pan Alley”. Most of those in the industry were immigrant Jews, whose livelihood depended on finding something new and popular. Although there were some well-known popular songs written earlier, the First World War, which shattered so many Victorian conventions, and also turned the United States into the world’s leading superpower, was the primary trigger for a new form of popular music. Almost overnight, many dozens, perhaps hundreds, of talented popular composers appeared, whose output became nationally and internationally known on 78 rpm records, and was played as the background music to silent films, by dance bands and popular orchestras, and above all on radio stations, which began to broadcast in the early 1920s.
