Music
History of Music
1900-1909
Americans sang hit songs such as, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." People loved to gather around a piano for family events and sing. Sheet music was very popular and sold many copies. Some people, called song pluggers, had pianos on carts that they played as they rode through town. On Saturday nights quartets sang popular songs of the time such as Sweet Adeline. In My Merry Oldsmobile, Come Josephine in My Flying Machine, and Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis were example of songs that told about the changes in the world. These songs listed told about the changes automobiles and airplanes had on people. Other songs talked about the racism of the time, such as, Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home and The Darktown Strutters Ball. Radios brought more music to the country and recordings of operas and broadway were introduced. Ballroom dancing replaced the waltz. Scott Joplin a very talented black man made ragtime very popular in the early 1900s and had a recording of two songs called, "Peacherine Rag" in 1901 and "Elite Syncopations" in 1902.
Types of Music and a Little About Them
Jazz
Louis Armstrong made a soloist's art, was born in New Orleans, August 4, 1901. Jelly Roll Morton claims he invented jazz. In Woodville, Mississippi, on August 27, 1909, Lester Young, poet laureate of the tenor saxophone, was born.
Classical
The advent of phonograph records transformed the relationship with performers, composers, and listeners. Gustave Charpentier's "Louise" premiered in February in 1900. Leos Janacek launched a strikingly original operatic career that will remain unappreciated by wider audiences for decades.
Pop
"Let Me Call You Sweetheart" let a huge sheet-music sales productivity. Barber quartets sang the soundtracks that were famous. Harry MacDonough was the top-selling artist of the time. He was said to be called immortal.