Tin Pan Alley manufactured quick fixes and false promises, blue skies, and gold at the end of the rainbow. Those songs then, and pop songs now, permeated the atmosphere with an addictive artificiality.
Chrisopher John Stephens
I love these old songs and how they are used in Singing Detective. One of my favorite examples of juxtaposition of suffering against the relentless optimism found in many songs of the Tin Pan Era is this one: