By the end of the 19th century the Music Hall had grown into a significant industry. There were thousands of Halls across the English-speaking world and who knows how many thousands of artistes.
The artistes needed songs. Some they wrote themselves, but increasingly they were written by individuals who exclusively made their living from writing and composing song. At the end of the 19th century songwriting became increasingly professionalised. The writers and composers organised themselves into groups and associations which campaigned to ensure that they received what they regarded as fair remuneration for their efforts.
Songwriting was undertaken on an industrial scale in some cases, and arguably for some of these songwriters quantity was more important than quality, so GW Hunt (The Jingo Song, Old Brown’s Daughter) claimed:
I write songs by the yard, the dozen and the bushel
Hunt claimed to have written 7000 songs, but this pales into insignificance next to Joseph Tabrar (writer of Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow Wow, and Ting Ting That’s How The Bell Goes ) who claimed 17,000!
This list feature a selection of songwriters that have had a significant impact on traditional singing.
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Last Updated on November 29, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: April 14, 2022
