View source for Ragtime

===The heyday of ragtime===
[[File:The Top Liner Rag.jpg|thumb|253px|[[Joseph Lamb (composer)|Joseph Lamb]]'s 1916 "The Top Liner Rag"]]

Ragtime quickly established itself as a distinctly American form of [[popular music]]. Ragtime became the first [[African American music]] to have an impact on mainstream popular culture. Piano "professors" such as [[Jelly Roll Morton]] played ragtime in the "sporting houses" ([[Brothel|bordellos]]) of [[New Orleans]]. Polite society embraced ragtime as disseminated by brass bands and "society" dance bands. Bands led by [[W. C. Handy]] and [[James R. Europe]] were among the first to crash the color bar in American music. The new rhythms of ragtime changed the world of dance bands and led to new dance steps, popularized by the show-dancers [[Vernon and Irene Castle]] during the 1910s. The growth of dance orchestras in popular entertainment was an outgrowth of ragtime and continued into the 1920s.

Ragtime also made its way to Europe. Shipboard orchestras on transatlantic lines included ragtime music in their repertoire. In 1912, the first public concerts of ragtime were performed in the United Kingdom by the American Ragtime Octette (ARO) at the [[Hippodrome, London]]; a group organized by ragtime composer and pianist [[Lewis F. Muir]] who toured Europe.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Blue Book of Tin Pan Alley: A Human Interest Encyclopedia of American Popular Music, Volume 2|author=Jack Burton, Graydon LaVerne Freeman, Larry Freeman|year=1962|publisher=Century House|page=213}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Music and Dancing|title=City Of Cities: The Birth Of Modern London|author=Stephen Inwood|year= 2011|isbn=9780330540674|publisher=[[Pan Macmillan]]}}</ref> Immensely popular with British audiences, the ARO popularized several of Muir's rags (such as "[[Waiting for the Robert E. Lee]]" and "[[Hitchy-Koo]]") which were credited by historian [[Ian Whitcomb]] as the first American popular songs to influence British culture and music.<ref name="Faber">{{cite book|chapter=Invasion|title=After the Ball: Pop Music from Rag to Rock|author=Ian Whitcomb|year=2013|publisher=[[Faber & Faber]]|isbn=9780571299331}}</ref> The ARO recorded some of Muir's rags with the British record label [[The Winner Records]] in 1912; the first ragtime recordings made in Europe.<ref>{{cite book|title=British Dance Bands on Record 1911 to 1945 and Supplement|author=Brian Rust, Sandy Forbes|page=1139|year=1989|publisher=[[General Gramophone Publications]]}}</ref> James R. Europe's 369th Regiment band generated great enthusiasm during its 1918 tour of France.<ref name="Scott1919">{{cite book|author=Emmett Jay Scott|title=Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War|url=https://archive.org/details/scottsofficialhi00scot|year=1919|publisher=Homewood Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/scottsofficialhi00scot/page/308 308]}}</ref>

Ragtime was an influence on early [[jazz]]; the influence of Jelly Roll Morton continued in the Harlem [[stride piano]] style of players such as [[James P. Johnson]] and [[Fats Waller]]. Ragtime was also a major influence on [[Piedmont blues]]. Dance orchestras started evolving away from ragtime towards the [[big band]] sounds that predominated in the 1920s and 1930s when they adopted smoother rhythmic styles.