Tin Pan Alley Pop refers to the traditional American popular music of the early 20th century, a time when a song's popularity was determined not by the number of records it sold, but by the number of copies of sheet music. Tin Pan Alley was a real place, located in Manhattan on West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue; a large number of music publishers had their offices there, and the din from so many composers writing songs on their pianos inspired writer Monroe Rosenfeld to liken the neighborhood ambience to the sound of striking on tin pans.