Line #0 Music/IrvingBerlin


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/r_3_9.jpg]]
2	Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin, May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) is, without a doubt, ''the'' father of modern American music, and one of the most prolific composers of the early and mid twentieth century. His music has become an integral part of American musical culture. It is almost impossible for anyone alive to have not heard a song he wrote. His songs include "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Puttin' on the Ritz,"[[note]]Taco's 1985 cover made Berlin, then aged 95 years, the oldest songwriter to have a top 5 hit on the Billboard charts during his lifetime.[[/note]] [[Music/MerryChristmas "White Christmas"]], and "God Bless America."
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4	[[AC:List of film/theatre scores]]
5	* ''Puttin' on the Ritz'' (1930)
6	* ''Film/TopHat'' (1935)
7	* ''Film/FollowTheFleet'' (1936)
8	* ''Film/AlexandersRagtimeBand'' (1938)
9	* ''Film/{{Carefree}}'' (1938)
10	* ''Film/HolidayInn'' (1942)
11	* ''Easter Parade'' (1948)
12	* ''Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun'' (theatre: 1946; film: 1950)
13	* ''Film/WhiteChristmas'' (1954)
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15	----
16	!!This composer is an example of the following tropes:
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18	* AnImmigrantsTale: He was born in UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}}, then-part of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, and came to the U.S. as a child due to the grim official Tsarist anti-Semitic policies.
19	* BlueIsCalm: "Blue Skies" extols blue skies and bluebirds indicators of inner peace and that things are looking up.
20	* BreakUpSong: While he wrote plenty of straightforward love songs, quite a few of his standards are about relationships that have broken up or are about to, including "All Alone," "All By Myself," "What'll I Do?," "How About Me?," "[You Forgot To] Remember," and "Say It Isn't So."
21	* ChristmasSongs: "White Christmas" is the most popular American Christmas song.
22	* CounterpointDuet: He had one of the first hits in this format with 1914's "Play a Simple Melody" and returned to it throughout his career, including his last big hit, "You're Just In Love" from ''Call Me Madam'', and his last new song in a musical, "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" from a 1966 revival of ''Annie Get Your Gun''.
23	* DreamingOfAWhiteChristmas: {{Trope Namer\|s}}, though the not-very-commonly-performed verse establishes that the narrator is experiencing a sunny and warm Christmas Eve in "Beverly Hills, L.A." and is reminiscing about the snowy Christmases of his youth.
24	* GriefSong: "When I Lost You," which he wrote after the death of his first wife Dorothy.
25	* NeverLearnedToRead: Not only could he not read or write music, he could only play in one key! Specifically, F sharp, so he could mostly stay in the black keys. He had a special piano built with what was essentially a giant lever-operated capo if ever he needed to transpose something. He got around his musical illiteracy by using a "musical secretary" to transcribe his songs. He once asked his songwriting friend Victor Herbert whether he should study composition, to which Herbert replied that it "might help you a little, but it could cramp your style".
26	* ProtestSong:
27	** "I'll See You In C-U-B-A" about Prohibition.
28	** "Stay Down Here Where You Belong" from 1914 was a general protest against war but was pretty obviously inspired by the outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in Europe. It became an OldShame for him after the US entered the war and he became known for patriotic songs.
29	--->To please their kings they've all gone out to war,
30	--->And not a one of them knows what he's fighting for.
31	* TheShowMustGoOn: Brought up in the song, "There's No Business Like Show Business".
32	-->'''You get word before the show has started,\
33	That your favorite uncle died at dawn.\
34	On top of that, your pa and ma have parted.\
35	You're brokenhearted,\
36	But you go on.''
37	* {{Qurac}}: "Araby", one of his early hits, and also an example of ArabianNightsDays, which gave him his surname (due to a typo on the sheet music, "Baline" came out as "Berlin".
38	* TheRoaringTwenties: Wrote songs which appeared in revues during this period, though he continued to work and remained plenty popular throughout TheGreatDepression all the way up to TheForties and TheFifties.

Context Music / IrvingBerlin