Scott Joplin Ragtime Foundation

About 120 years ago, Scott Joplin, the son of former enslaved parents, changed the world with a song.  Published in 1899, The Maple Leaf Rag launched a nation-wide, ragtime music craze.  The rag, named after a social club in Sedalia, MO, would also make Scott Joplin the first platinum-selling artist of all time (the first artist to sell a million copies of a song while still alive) – which he did with sheet music.  By 1910, ragtime was influencing the works of great European classical composers.  For the first quarter of the 20th century, ragtime was American pop music and Scott Joplin was the undisputed “King of Ragtime.”  With Joplin leading the charge, ragtime composers created a distinctively American musical export centered around one concept: “syncopation.”