Entry · catalog no. 9633
ragtime
/ /ˈræɡtaɪm/ /RAG-tyme
noun · Missouri (Sedalia and St. Louis) and Black communities across the Midwest · 1890s
✓ Verified
1.
A style of music, written and played above all on piano, with a steady marching-style bass under a syncopated, "ragged" melody. It was developed by Black pianists and composers in the Midwest and the South in the 1890s and became the country's most popular music by about 1900.
“Before anybody called it jazz, folks in Sedalia and St. Louis were already dancing to ragtime.”
Origin & Attribution
Created by Black pianists and composers in the 1890s, in saloons, clubs and parlors of Missouri and nearby cities; the name comes from the "ragged," off-the-beat syncopation of the melody. Scott Joplin, a Black composer based in Sedalia, Missouri, published "Original Rags" and "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899, and the second sold in huge numbers as sheet music. Ragtime was then marketed mostly through white-run sheet-music publishers and blackface-era songs, which blurred who had made it; the music itself is a Black American invention.
1890s
Black pianists in the Midwest and South develop syncopated "ragged" piano playing.
1899
Scott Joplin publishes "Original Rags" and "Maple Leaf Rag."
1911
Joplin's opera "Treemonisha" is completed and published at his own expense.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Midwest
Missouri (Sedalia and St. Louis) and Black communities across the Midwest · 1890s
Spoken by
Black pianists, composers and dancers; revived by classical and jazz performers
$RAGTIMThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Fading1 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
25/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1899
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Mainstream crossover
1900
search interest spikes
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
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Citations & Sources
■
Scott Joplin, "Maple Leaf Rag" (John Stark & Son, Sedalia/St. Louis, 1899)
sheet music, 1899
■
+ Cite a sourceScott Joplin, "Original Rags" (Carl Hoffman, Kansas City, 1899)
sheet music, 1899
See also