From the beginning of time, all the way until present day, music has been an influence for everyone all around the world. Music has a way of changing individual people, while also changing entire nations. It brings people together, and gives strength to those who have none. Everyone has their own kind of music. Music does different things to different people. The main idea that I'm getting at is that music is powerful. Music is so powerful, in fact, that it can, and has, changed nations. During the turn of the century, music was a primary factor for all of the change that occurred in America. This is because of the mass inclusion that music awoke, the introduction to leisure time that it brought, the general aesthetic that it created, and the comfortable environment it used to welcome immigrants.
At this time (1870's to early 1900's), there was an amass of immigrants coming into America. People of all different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. This, at first, led to a lot of discomfort. People were not exactly comfortable with different, especially in the urban cities. There was a fair amount of prejudice, primarily with African Americans, Mexicans, and Asians. This was obviously not the intended goal of this mass urbanization, but rather a side effect. The country was struggling to find a way to bring people of different ethnic backgrounds together, when a solution started to arise. Art has been quite a segregated field until now. Scott Joplin was a composer in the late 1800's who was African American. He came from a family that always supported music, but couldn't really go anywhere due to their race and the social stigmas of the time. But Scott changed the game. He created something that would soon be a staple of the time: Ragtime. Ragtime is a genre of music that was primarily composed by African Americans, and became popular amoungst people of all races during this time period. Joplin's big break was his composition of one of the most prominent pieces of the time called "Maple Leaf Rag". During this time, you could walk into any saloon and hear one of Joplin's pieces on the piano. As far as inclusions goes, Joplin started a "movement" that would forever change the way people viewed race.
As the turn of the century approached, new ideals were being introduced to the people of America, one of these being the concept of leisure time. A time to relax and have fun was practically unheard of before this time, mainly because the country was still developing as a whole, making work the main priority throughout America. At the turn of the century, the main thing that sparked this concept of leisure time was the fact that so many new people were immigrating, that the amount of workers shot up, while the amount of work time fell. People were now able to enjoy things they would not normally be able to enjoy, one of these being music. Just as this new era was forming, a new invention was also forming. The gramophone was a device that was the start of the something big: music being easily accessible. Before the gramophone, the only way to play music from a device in your home was called a cylinder machine, which played music from these bulky boxes called cylinders. There were several problems with cylinders: they were made of flimsy materials so they were easily broken and worn, they were not mass produced because they were made mechanically, and it was difficult to credit the artist because the only place available for the artists name and the song was on a small piece of paper that was easily misplaced. For this reason, having recorded music accessible in the home was extremely cumbersome and inconvenient. But in 1894, an immigrant from Germany came over to New York, gather a business crew, and started production of the new gramophone under the name "The United States Gramophone Company". The reason that gramophones were such a hit was because it practically eliminated the variables that kept people from enjoying music with cylinder machines. With a gramophone, the records were first made from hard rubber so they were sturdy enough that they were not as easy to break. They were also easier to store than the bulky cylinders, and they had a blank circle in the middle of the record for crediting the artist. The only negative difference between the cylinder machine and the gramophone was that gramophones could not create home recordings like the cylinder machine. This massive invention created this entirely new concept, which grabbed at the heart of urbanization and made this new America a more attractive place to live in.
The reason that people were so insistent on coming to America was the feel. The country promised hope, freedom, and a new life. The rapid growth of urban cities provided opportunity. But you can't simply see a movie and like it's aesthetic without a soundtrack. The sounds of turn-of-the-century America were a catalyst in the rapid growth, and they painted a picture of what it would be like. In order to delve further into this concept, I decided to analyze the previously mentioned "Maple Leaf Rag", written by the King of Rag himself, Scott Joplin. To start off, the piece is written in 2/4 time, meaning that it is twice as fast as the most popularly used and "default" time signature of 4/4. We can already see the correlation between this and the state of the country as a whole: fast. To add to this, the piece is primarily written with eighth notes, which is also twice as short as the "default" quarter note. With the fast time signature and the amass of short eighth notes, we notice another factor that contributes to our understanding of the time, which is the concept of short and fast. A lot is getting done during this time, but it isn't a long process. It all happens relatively quickly. Back to the piece, Joplin uses a lot of drastic note changes. Musicians would look at this piece and almost feel overwhelmed and the amount of distance between each note. This drastic change in pitch, using octaves as his main focus, can definitely be related to the central theme of the time: change. Practically everything that America has had is being changed by the drastic urbanization. Finally, we must talk about the key signature on this piece: A major. This particular key is used mostly in patriotic hymns, mainly because it provides the listener with a feeling of hope and determination. It also happens to be one of the "happiest" sounding keys out there. Joplin is clearly using this to show that this new America is a place of dreams and hope. This is only one of the many pieces that were popular during this time, but this piece was the start of it all.
During the turn of the century, everything was changing for America. In every department, things were becoming more and more advanced, and at some points, this could be overwhelming. It would be especially overwhelming for immigrants, those who would not be used to this certain kind of urban lifestyle. And, of course, they were trying to find comfort in these somewhat stressful times. One way was music. Famous ragtime composer Irving Berlin, who was a German immigrant himself, said, "Syncopation is the soul of every true American. Ragtime is the best heart-raiser and worry-banisher I know." This shows that immigrants found a quick way to cope with the daily stresses of living in urbanized America. As immigrants started to come over, they began maintaining theaters for the purpose of being able to exercise the culture of their homeland: for comfort.
For many reasons, music has been a defining factor in the urbanization and growth of America during the turn of the century. If there was no music, there would be no energy, and, in turn, no hope. If there was no hope, there wouldn't be as rapid immigration, mainly because there wouldn't be this idea of hope associated with this new America. Music made the rapid change bearable and, at some points, enjoyable. It brought people together and created new ideas that were unheard of before. It brought this country together, and gave it a dream to become what it is today.
I used this for a brief summary of what music was like circa 1900
This article gave me a very good starting point at what to hone my research to. (Scott Joplin, Turn of the Century, etc)
This book had a whole chapter (The Rise of Ragtime) dedicated to the rise and "fall" of ragtime, the music of the turn of the century, and specific people and places associated with this turn.
History of the Gramophone
This provided so much knowledge into a major invention of the time that had such a massive influence on the effect music had on the urbanization of America.
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Textbook) American History: A Survey
I used Chapter 18 as a guide to what I really was interested in, which is the effect of musical entertainment in a public sense versus musical entertainment in a private, more accessible sense.
(Primary Source Analysis) Maple Leaf Rag
I spent a considerable amount of time listening to, reading the sheet music, and analyzing this specific song, as it was one of the most popular songs around the turn of the century. I used the original data I got from this to further my idea of the strong relationship between music and the urbanization of America.
