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Article: Popular Music
- Article from:
- American Eras
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Gale Research Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Popular Music
Sources
A Question of Taste.
The distinction between
“
popular
”
and
“
serious
”
music
—
a distinction that Americans take for granted today
—
originated in the late nineteenth century. While it is impossible to pinpoint an exact moment at which highbrow and lowbrow diverged, it is possible to examine the forces and personalities that drove the popular-music industry in its early years.
The Industry.
Lyricists, composers, and publishers flocked to Manhattan during the 1880s and 1890s, but not until the early twentieth century did music makers consolidate around Twenty-eighth Street
—
prompting one critic to dub the thoroughfare
...