Traditional American popular music written by early 20th-Century professional songwriters such as Irving Berlin and the Gershwins. The name was given to the stretch of West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue in New York City because of the noise of pianos at hundreds of music publishers' offices there. With no air conditioning and all the windows open, it must have been quite a racket.

Even when the publishing companies moved uptown, the name continued to refer to the type of song associated with the early days, usually short and catchy with repeated phrases. The end of the Tin Pan Alley era is generally considered to be the mid 1940s.