Ragtime

Ragtime is a type of music featuring melodies with shifting accents over a steady, marching band beat. It originated amoung black musicians in the South and Midwest in the 1880s. One of the first ragtime melodies was Maple Leaf Rag (above) written by Scott Joplin and recorded in 1903. Ragtime was the first American genre of music and was even before jazz.

information provided by Prentice Hall AMERICA Pathways to the present page 331. Information provided by http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/a/a6/300px-Maple_Leaf_Rag.PNG. information provided by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragtime.