Tin pan alley

The neighborhood on New York City, around West 28th Street, where many of the music publishers of the end of the nineteenth century through mid-twentieth century were located. The name is attributed to New York Herald journalist Monroe Rosenfeld who was describing the sound coming from the open windows of the publishing houses. Composers associated with Tin Pan Alley were Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Charles Harris, Arthur Lamb, and Harry Warren. In 1914 it was the birthplace of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) which was intended to enforce payment of royalties to composers and publishers for public performances.