Blogg 2

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin (1899)

I chose to listen to Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin. I have heard this song before in cartoons and on TV, however I did not know anything about this song before class. I think it is a fun and entertaining song. There is a lot of things going on at once in the song, it has a very quick tempo, that makes the song sound kinda chaotic. He uses a piano to play the song, I do not know if there is any other instruments in the song. I liked this song a lot more than the other music from the same period. This type of music makes you happier than the traditional Waltz music that was considered proper during that time period. The name rag means to spice things up, which is exactly what Scott Joplin did to the music. His song soon became very popular by the younger generation. The younger generation loved rag music which broke from the traditional AABA form, however rag music was often very racist. And was used to make fun of black people. This surprised me a lot, I do not understand why the music was considered bad, just because it was different from the waltz.