[Ads-l] Antedating of "Syncopated" (Ragtime or Jazz)

[Shapiro, Fred]

syncopated (OED, 2.b., 1908)

1896 Chicago Tribune 18 Oct. 43/1 (Newspapers.com)

"Darky" music, both instrumental and vocal, is the reigning fad of the hour. ... the negro music of the present time is vastly in advance of what it used to be.  The old regular and monotonous "tom-tom" of the supposed banjo has been supplanted by syncopated, or, in darky parlance, "rag" time.

Fred Shapiro



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