Broadside (music) - Citizendia

Printed lyrics of popular songs were extremely popular from the 16th century until the early 20th century. They were commonly known as broadsides or broadsheets. Over time, the name came to refer to any printed matter confined to one side of a single sheet of paper, such as handbills, advertisements, posters, etc.

Broadsides were generally printed on one side of a piece of paper and included only the lyrics. Printed music usually wasn't included but sometimes the name of a popular tune would appear below the title. Since folk tunes were used and reused, people generally only needed to learn the words. Music was not included because a monopoly on music publishing had been granted by Queen Elizabeth to two court musicians.

Broadsides were written by hand before the invention of the printing press, and only grew extremely popular after they could be cheaply reproduced. A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth thereby transferring an image Broadside ballads were sold by travelling chapmen and peddlers, at shops and stalls at markets, and were pasted on walls or other locations before being learned; after the words had been committed to memory, the broadside was replaced or pasted by another. A Chapman (plural chapmen) was an itinerant dealer or hawker in Early modern Britain. Thomas Holcroft writes: "even the walls of cottages and little alehouses would do something, for many of them had old English ballads, such as Death and the Lady, and Margaret's Ghost, with lamentable tragedies, or King Charles golden rules occasionally pasted on them" (quoted in Shepherd: "History of Street Literature" Writings of John Clare)

One of the first known broadsides was A Lytel Geste of Robyne Hood, printed in 1506. Thomas Holcroft ( December 10, 1745 - March 23, 1809) was an English Dramatist and miscellaneous writer Their popularity grew quickly—one merchant sold 190 ballads in 1520, a remarkable sum, which may be evidence of relatively high levels of literacy at the time. After 1556, printers were required to register with the Stationers' Company in London, and had to pay four pence to register each ballad beginning in 1557 and continuing to 1709. The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (better known as the Stationers' Company) is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. As well as being popular in the UK, they became popular in western Europe and the United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

Broadsides were often folded into pamphlets called chapbooks. Chapbook is a generic term to cover a particular genre of pocket-sized booklet popular from the sixteenth through to the later part of the nineteenth century The collection of songs and ballads in chapbooks were known as garlands.

Early in the 17th century broadsides were printed in blackletter, but over the course of the century printers moved to using whiteletter typefaces making the words easier to read for modern readers. Blackletter, also known as Gothic script or Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 Contemporary typographers view typography as craft with a very long History tracing its origins back to the first punches and dies used to make seals and Currency The considerable collection of broadsides that was part of Samuel Pepys' estate were collected primarily to preserve examples of the blackletter style at the time it was rapidly growing archaic. Samuel Pepys, FRS (23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703 was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for "Blackletter" typeface (i. e. gothic) was rarely used after 1680 (see Broadside Ballads).

Although broadsides enjoyed a brief resurgence of popularity in the late 19th century, this proved shortlived. By the beginning of the 20th century, broadsides were declining in popularity due to the influx of newspapers, and the tradition soon died out. A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint.

It is not uncommon in the 21st century, however, to find broadsides published at local cultural events, in particular poetry readings or art show openings. In this case the broadsides commemorate the event with samples of the art in question.

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