Scott Joplin Emerges as Pioneer of Ragtime Music

Scott Joplin, based in Sedalia, Missouri, began publishing the syncopated piano compositions that would define ragtime music as America's first homegrown popular music genre. His 'Original Rags' (1897) and the soon-to-follow 'Maple Leaf Rag' (1899) established the form and made him the genre's foremost composer. Ragtime, rooted in African American musical traditions, profoundly influenced all subsequent American popular music.