<P> Ragtime was a style of dance music based around the piano, using syncopated rhythms and chromaticisms; the genre's most well - known performer and composer was undoubtedly Scott Joplin . Donald Clarke considers ragtime the culmination of coon songs, used first in minstrel shows and then vaudeville, and the result of the rhythms of minstrelsy percolating into the mainstream; he also suggests that ragtime's distinctive sound may have come from an attempt to imitate the African American banjo using the keyboard . </P> <P> Due to the essentially African American nature of ragtime, it is most commonly considered the first style of American popular music to be truly black music; ragtime brought syncopation and a more authentic black sound to popular music . Popular ragtime songs were notated and sold as sheet music, but the general style was played more informally across the nation; these amateur performers played a more free - flowing form of ragtime that eventually became a major formative influence on jazz . </P> <P> Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph cylinder kicked off the birth of recorded music . The first cylinder to be released was "Semper Fidelis" by the U.S. Marine Band . At first, cylinders were released sparingly, but as their sales grew more profitable, distribution increased . These early recorded songs were a mix of vaudeville, barbershop quartets, marches, opera, novelty songs, and other popular tunes . Many popular standards, such as "The Good Old Summertime", "Shine On Harvest Moon", and "Over There" come from this time . There were also a few early hits in the field of jazz, beginning with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's 1917 recordings, and followed by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, who played in a more authentic New Orleans jazz style . </P> <P> Blues had been around a long time before it became a part of the first explosion of recorded popular music in American history . This came in the 1920s, when classic female blues singers like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith grew very popular; the first hit of this field was Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues". These urban blues singers changed the idea of popular music from being simple songs that could be easily performed by anyone to works primarily associated with an individual singer . Performers like Sophie Tucker, known for "Some of These Days", became closely associated with their hits, making their individualized interpretations just as important as the song itself . </P>

Popular music in western society has as its foundation