Modern Popular Music - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key figures, forms, and songs in modern popular music from Tin Pan Alley era, with emphasis on influential composers, song forms, and standards.

Irving Berlin

One of Tin Pan Alley’s most productive and diverse songwriters; career began before WWI and continued into the 1960s; wrote many songs for Broadway and film; first big hit was “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911); “Blue Skies” was performed by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.

Richard Rodgers

Composer who produced many of the period’s finest songs, notably in collaboration with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Cole Porter

Composer born into a wealthy Indiana family; classical training at Yale, Harvard, and Paris’ Scuola Cantorum.

George Gershwin

Composer who bridged art music and popular music; influenced by jazz; key figure in the early 20th-century music business as a producer, publisher, and promoter, among other roles.

Tin Pan Alley song form

AABA structure and verse-and-chorus forms from the 19th century; verse sets up context or mood, while the refrain (the main song) is typically four sections long in the AABA pattern.

Verse

The section that sets up the dramatic context or emotional tone of a song.

Refrain

The main, memorable portion of the song, usually considered “the song” today; in AABA form it often comprises four sections of equal length.

Verse-refrain form

A song structure that uses a verse to set up the song and a refrain to deliver the hook; often associated with AABA-type refrains.

I Got Rhythm

A Gershwin song used as an example of how a song can become a standard; introduced in the stage show Girl Crazy (1930).

Rhapsody in Blue

George Gershwin composition blending classical music with jazz influences; illustrates the fusion of art music and popular music.

'deed I do'

Song (music by Fred Rose, lyrics by Walter Hirsch) performed by Ruth Etting in 1926; follows Tin Pan Alley form with verse and AABA refrain; the refrain acts as a hook.

Ruth Etting

One of the most popular singers of the 1920s and 1930s; performer of “deed I do.”

Alexander’s Ragtime Band

Irving Berlin’s first major hit (1911), a ragtime-influenced popular song that helped establish Tin Pan Alley’s commercial power.

Blue Skies

A song by Irving Berlin, performed by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.

Standard (song standard)

Popular songs that endure over time and remain in active circulation for more than seven decades.

Ethel Merman

Stage star who premiered Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” in the 1930 show Girl Crazy and became an iconic Broadway performer.

Girl Crazy

1930 stage show that featured the hit song “I Got Rhythm” and helped popularize Gershwin’s work.

The Jazz Singer

Early sound film in which Al Jolson performed Berlin’s “Blue Skies,” illustrating the intersection of film and popular music.