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N0KFQ > TODAY 18.03.16 17:04l 54 Lines 2562 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 88049_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 18
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Sent: 160318/1500Z 88049@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1911
Irving Berlin copyrights the biggest pop song of the early 20th
century
A century ago, even before the phonograph had become a common
household item, there was already a burgeoning music industry in
the United States based not on the sale of recorded musical
performances, but on the sale of sheet music. It was in the
medium of printed paper, and not grooved lacquer or vinyl discs,
that songs gained popularity in the first two decades of the 20th
century, and no song gained greater popularity in that era than
Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band." Copyrighted on March
18, 1911, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" was the multimillion-selling
smash hit that helped turn American popular music into a major
international phenomenon, both culturally and economically.
It may seem like a rather grand claim to make about a simple,
catchy tune, but then as now, simple and catchy were great
virtues in the realm of pop music. Most people first encountered
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" when it was played on the piano by a
friend or family member. This was the way that songs caught on in
the era before radio, and part of what helped "Alexander" catch
on was its relative lack of complexity. Though nominally a
ragtime tune, anyone who plays the piano would quickly recognize
the differences between it and a true rag like Scott Joplin's
"The Entertainer," which places some fairly significant demands
on both the left and right hand. "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a
vastly simpler piece for an amateur to master, and this greatly
encouraged sheet music sales, which topped 1.5 million copies in
the first 18 months after its publication.
Though it gained worldwide popularity purely as a piece of
printed sheet music, innumerable recorded versions of
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" would soon follow, particularly after
lyrics were added to what was originally an instrumental tune.
Those lyrics_"Come on and hear, Come on and hear_"_and that tune
are still familiar a century after they were written. Some of
Irving Berlin's later contributions to the American popular music
canon_songs like "White Christmas," "God Bless America" and
"There's No Business Like Show Business"_eclipsed even the
massive success of "Alexander's Ragtime Band." It's entirely
possible, however, that those 20th-century classics would never
have been written were it not for the commercial success that
Irving Berlin achieved with the song he copyrighted on this day
in 1911.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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