With the newly invented gramophone/phonograph made available to the public at the turn of the 20th century, 'popular music' came into its own as something everyone could listen to and even play for themselves in the privacy of their own homes. Affordable live entertainment at the time was available at a variety of venues ranging from the street to sheds to formal theaters: there were vaudeville acts, 'penny operas' and movie screenings staffed with musicians who played along with the action, and soon, “talking” movies supplied their own soundtracks full of catchy new tunes. In short, popular music was everywhere, and people loved to be able to pick up a copy of the latest ‘hit song’ in sheet music form, so they could bring it home and play it with the whole family.

From the late 1880's up until the 1950’s, New York was perhaps the largest center for producing this hot commodity: the famous Tin Pan Alley was essentially a small neighborhood district in Manhattan where a large number of music publishers and songwriters had their offices. Literally millions of copies of sheet music were churned out by this scene, and similar enclaves inhabited by this burgeoning music industry cropped up all over the US and Europe during its heyday. For a dollar or even a quarter, anyone could pick up a two to seven page booklet of just about any song they wanted, and bring it home to play on the piano, guitar, ukulele, banjo or even sax, as many scores contained tablature charts and tuning guides for instruments other than piano.

With easy-to-play musical phrasing, eye-catching covers and tempting snipets of other upcoming or well-known tunes advertised to lure eager buyers, 20th century popular sheet music was quite the “gotta have it!” fad for decades. Publishers like Irving Berlin (1888 – 1989) and the enduring Broadway musical mainstay "The Ziegfeld Follies" (ca. 1907 - 1936) were household names. Some say it was only the advent of rock n’ roll that eventually eclipsed the reign of such a widespread cultural phenomenon.