Editing Alexander's Ragtime Band (section)

=== Cultural sensation ===
{{further|Ragtime|Irene and Vernon Castle}}
{{quote box|title=A Meritorious Addition|align=left|width=24em|quote="In a few days, 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' will be whistled on the streets and played in the cafés. It is the most [[Wiktionary:meritorious|meritorious]] addition to the list of popular songs introduced this season. The vivacious comedienne [Emma Carus] had her audience singing the choruses with her, and those who did not sing, whistled."|source= —''[[The New York Sun]]'', May 1911{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=34}}}}

Although neither Irving Berlin's first commercial hit nor his first composition to attract international attention, "Alexander's Ragtime Band"  nevertheless catapulted Berlin's career.{{sfnm|1a1=Furia|1a2=Patterson|1y=2016|1p=73|2a1=Furia|2y=1992|2p=49}} American newspapers hailed Berlin's jumpy tune as the decade's musical sensation,{{sfn|Bergreen|1990|p=68}} and he became a [[High society (social class)|cultural luminary]] over night.{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} An adoring international press subsequently touted him as the "King of Ragtime",{{sfnm|Giddins|1998|1p=31|Golden|2007|2p=54}} an inaccurate title as the song "had little to do with ragtime and everything to do with ragtime audacity, alerting [[Europe]] to hot times in [[Thirteen Colonies|the colonies]]."{{sfn|Giddins|1998|p=31}} Baffled by this new title, Berlin publicly insisted that he did not originate ragtime but merely "crystallized it and brought it to people's attention."{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=36}} Historian [[Mark Sullivan (journalist)|Mark Sullivan]] later claimed that, with the auspicious debut of "Alexander's Ragtime Band", Berlin abruptly "lifted ragtime from the depths of sordid dives to the [[Wiktionary:Apotheosis|apotheosis]] of fashionable vogue."{{sfn|Golden|2007|p=54}}

Although not a traditional ragtime song,{{sfnm|Furia|1992|1p=49|Corliss|2001}} Berlin's jaunty composition kickstarted a ragtime [[jubilee]]—a belated popular celebration of the musical style which African-American composers such as [[Scott Joplin]] had originated a decade earlier in the 1890s.{{efn|name=Ragtime|In a 1913 interview published in the [[black newspaper]] ''[[New York Age]]'', [[Scott Joplin]] asserted that there had been "ragtime music in America ever since the [[Negro]] race has been here, but the [[white people]] took no notice of it until about twenty years ago [in the 1890s]."{{sfn|Joplin interview|1913}}}} The positive international reception of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in 1911 led to a musical and dance revival known as "the ragtime craze".{{sfnm|Golden|2007|1p=56|Furia|1992|2p=49}} 

[[File:Vernon and Irene Castle2 crop.jpg|thumb|right|[[Irene and Vernon Castle]], {{circa|1912|lk=yes}}]]
At the time, ragtime music caught "its [[second wind]]" and ragtime dancing spread "like wildfire."{{sfn|Golden|2007|p=51}} One dancing couple in particular who exemplified this [[fad]]dish sensation were [[Vernon and Irene Castle]].{{sfnm|Golden|2007|1p=51|Furia|1992|2p=49}} The charismatic, trendsetting duo frequently danced to Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and his other [[modernism|modernist]] compositions.{{sfn|Furia|1992|p=49}} The Castles' [[modern dancing]] paired with Berlin's [[20th-century music|modern songs]] came to embody the ongoing [[Cultural conflict|culture clash]] between the waning propriety of the [[Edwardian era]] and the waxing joviality of the Ragtime revolution on the eve of [[World War I|World {{nowrap|War&nbsp;I}}]].{{sfnm|Golden|2007|1pp=51-54|Furia|1992|2p=50|Jablonski|2012|3p=31}} The ''[[Daily Express]]'' wrote in 1913 that:

{{Quote|In every [[London]] restaurant, park and theater, you hear [Berlin's] strains; [[Paris]] dances to it; [[Vienna]] has forsaken the [[waltz]]; [[Madrid]] has flung away her [[castanet]]s, and [[Venice]] has forgotten her [[barcarolle]]s. Ragtime has swept like a [[whirlwind]] over the earth.{{sfn|Golden|2007|p=56}}}}

Writers such as [[Edward Jablonski]] and [[Ian Whitcomb]] have emphasized the irony that, in the [[1910s]], even the [[upper class]] of the [[Russian Empire]]—a [[reactionary]] nation from which Berlin's [[Jewish]] forebears had been [[Pogrom|compelled to flee]] decades earlier{{sfn|Whitcomb|1988|pp=183-184}}—became enamored with "the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on [[mania]]."{{sfnm|Whitcomb|1988|1pp=183-184|Jablonski|2012|2p=35}} Specifically, [[British people|British]] [[socialite]] [[Lady Diana Cooper]] described Prince [[Felix Yusupov]], an affluent [[House of Yusupov|Russian aristocrat]] who married the niece of [[Tsar Nicholas II]] and later murdered [[Grigori Rasputin]], as dancing "around the [[ballroom]] like a demented worm" and shouting, "More ragtime!"{{sfn|Whitcomb|1988|pp=183-184}}

Hearing of such behavior, commentators diagnosed such individuals as "bitten by the ragtime bug" and behaving like "a dog with [[rabies]]."{{sfn|Golden|2007|pp=52-53}} They declared that "whether [the ragtime mania] is simply a passing phase of our [[Decadence|decadent]] culture or an [[infectious disease]] which has come to stay, like ''[[la grippe]]'' or [[leprosy]], time alone can show."{{sfn|Golden|2007|p=52}}