Kawai Piano Prices: Favorite Songs of the Nineties [Paperback] Review

The phenomenon of "hit" songs did not really come into the American consciousness until the 1890's."After The Ball," included in this collection, established a benchmark that all songs that followed were measured against.

Before the 90's, the American music publishing industry was scattered and ill defined. Hit songs were disconnected and generally regional, save for a few from early American popular song composers such as Stephen Foster and Henry Clay Work. It was with the establishment of a central publishing industry, Tin Pan Alley, and the growth of communication media and later the phonograph and radio that fostered the idea of nation wide and even world wide hit songs.

In the music of this period -- the 1890s -- we see a marriage of art and commercialism, which paints a picture not of how life actually WAS, but how people wished life COULD BE.What resulted was a body of work that is enduring, with memorable melodies and lyrics.

From the melancholy nostalgia of "After the Ball" to the humor of "Waiting at the Church" to the melodrama of "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out!," we get a wonderful and varied picture of life in those days.Women whose lives were ruined by men, men whose lives were ruined by women, and pure patriotism -- it's all here.This is the period that set the stage for the US commercial music industry.

The music in this collection is beautifully reproduced, including the cover artwork.

I used a few of these songs for my senior recital as a vocal performance major a few years ago.It was a nice change from the usual opera arias and German and French art songs.

Definitely worth a look if you're interested in the history of the American popular music industry.

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Product Description:
Eight-eight favorites. After the Ball; Asleep in the Deep; The Band Played On;Dear Old Girl; Down Went McGinty;The Sidewalks of New York; Give My Regards to Broadway; Hello! Ma Baby; Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis; My Wild Irish Rose; more.