Your use of the word "authorities" is what lacks trust from me... of course I trust you believe your *proofs have backing.
Maple Leaf Rag ... It was an immediate hit, selling more than a million copies of sheet music in the next few years. ... its popularity marks the beginning of the ragtime era So when
exactly do you/they mark the beginning of the ragtime "era", when "it" sold the millionth copy? It is interesting that your 'so-called' authorities make such a clean point in time when actually® ragtime music, specifically "syncopated" piano music, was popular for "quite a while" before Joplin's Maple Leaf. It's about the words used to explain, not the obvious facts. History continues to make its notches in the wall as it seeks to understand things out of context and teach them that way, which is, as I first said, generalized historical ridiculouness (probably not the 'best' words to describe "it").
I suppose you still believe Columbus discovered America?
I suppose you'd also believe we are now in the post 9/11 terrorist era (as opposed to the pre-9/11 terrorists era)? I'd be more inclined to use the words 'we are in the post Kyoto(sp?) treaty era'. Convenient definitions of understanding history are just that to and for those that use them. I'm not ignoring a specific events significance, but if you look at the nice little collection of information included in your "shorterlink" source it only has
one reference to ragtime music. I hope my point is becoming clearer.
You and I use words differently and understand them differently. It would be arrogant of me to not attempt to understand your *perspective... but that does include *looking beyond the words used.
