American Music Timeline
Part III: 1900-1920
by David Johnson

1900	Symphony Hall built in Boston Top
1900	"Country" music of southeastern U.S. features guitar, fiddle banjo, harmonica - direct descendant of English, Scottish, Irish ballads, folk songs "Western" musical genre spreads through western states, features steel guitars and large bands; singing cowboys Based on Mississippi River boat music and black, French, Spanish piano music, jazz develops in New Orleans brothels, honky-tonk bars Top
1904	George M. Cohan's musical play, Little Johnny Jones, followed by Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, 1906, help create indigenous American musical theater Top
1907	Florenz Ziegfeld launches Ziegfeld Follies, elaborate musical stage shows, through 1931, starring such performers as Billie Burke, Fannie Brice, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers Top
1911	Popular songwriter Irving Berlin completes "Alexander's Ragtime Band," his first hit; culmination of ragtime craze Top
1912	Composer, band leader, "father of the blues," William Christopher Handy publishes Memphis Blues, helps inaugurate new style based on rural black folk music Top
1916	President Woodrow Wilson issues executive order making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem. Congress confirms it, 1931 Charles Albert Tindley, first black gospel composer to be published, releases New Songs of Paradise, collection of 37 gospel works Top
Next: Popular music, jazz, and the blues

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