The importance of learning about ragtime is manyfold. First and foremost, it is our heritage, it is the first American music, with its distinctive sound. Americans of many backgrounds contributed to this urban folk music. Professionals and amateurs, everyday home musicians, from the unschooled to the adept, contributed to our own nation’s musical heartbeat. It developed into jazz, Broadway musicals, dance bands, swing. It went beyond our borders to foreign lands. Its rhythm and syncopation were hard to suppress.
Outcries couldn’t stop it. Ragtime dances were banned. But its great popularity was not halted. Its influence changed the course of popular music and it began here. It is something to be proud of, and it is something that should be taught in all of our schools. Ragtime is a gift from America.
written for The Ragtime Project by Galen Wilkes
