Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War

God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War

Smith, Kathleen E. R.

Hardcover

20th Century United States HistoryGeneral MusicMusic Reference

ISBN10: 0813122562
ISBN13: 9780813122564
Publisher: Univ Pr Of Kentucky
Published: Mar 28 2003
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.41
Height: 1.01 Width: 6.20 Depth: 9.48
Language: English

After Pearl Harbor, Tin Pan Alley songwriters rushed to write the Great American War Song--an Over There for World War II. The most popular songs, however, continued to be romantic ballads, escapist tunes, or novelty songs. To remedy the situation, the federal government created the National Wartime Music Committee, an advisory group of the Office of War Information (OWI), which outlined proper war songs, along with tips on how and what to write. The music business also formed its own Music War Committee to promote war songs.

Neither group succeeded. The OWI hoped that Tin Pan Alley could be converted from manufacturing love songs to manufacturing war songs just as automobile plants had retooled to assemble planes and tanks. But the OWI failed to comprehend the large extent by which the war effort would be defined by advertisers and merchandisers. Selling merchandise was the first priority of Tin Pan Alley, and the OWI never swayed them from this course.

Kathleen E.R. Smith concludes the government's fears of faltering morale did not materialize. Americans did not need such war songs as Goodbye, Mama, I'm Off To Yokohama, There Are No Wings On a Foxhole, or even The Sun Will Soon Be Setting On The Land Of The Rising Sun to convince them to support the war. The crusade for a proper war song was misguided from the beginning, and the music business, then and now, continues to make huge profits selling love--not war--songs.

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