Writing Assignment #5:

History of Ragtime. Web. Accessed August 4, 2021.

https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200035811/.

I believe this source from the Library of Congress will be used deeply during my writing of the
essay. In the essay, I will be trying to argue on why ragtime is such an important genre in
African-American music history due to its status as one of the first forms of African-American
music to have a major impact on mainstream popular culture. This is mostly due to how in
depth the author goes into detailing the stylistic conventions of Ragtime through musical
analysis of form, rhythm, and harmony, which I can use to argue on how ragtime has also
affected early jazz. Furthermore, it also goes into detail regarding how ragtime became a “fad”
in the early 1900s and its return in the 1950-70s, which I can use to describe how influential
ragtime was as a genre in mainstream American popular culture.