010 Ragtime, Reversal, and Syncopation

Starting with the reversals of cultural borrowing or appropriation in the cakewalk, this episode examines ragtime and its various inversions or reversals. I discuss the emergence of ragtime out of the coon song with all of its problematic racial representations, the "problem" of Black music at the turn of the 20th century (and the lack of Black musical representation in the official program of the Columbian Exposition),  the efforts of composers such as Scott Joplin to transform ragtime into a quasi-classical form of instrumental music, and the objections voiced by James Weldon Johnson to the "nationalism" of the ragtime craze versus the "racialism" of its origins. The episode concludes with a discussion of syncopation and its eerie corporeality.