A century ago, even before the phonograph had become a
a common household item, there was already a burgeoning
music industry in the United States based not on the sale of
recorded musical performances, but on the sale of sheet
music. It was in the medium of printed paper, and not grooved
lacquer or vinyl discs, that songs gained popularity in the first
two decades of the 20th century, and no song gained greater
popularity in that era than Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime
Band.” Copyrighted on March 18, 1911, The song was the
was the multimillion-selling smash hit that helped turn
American popular music into an international phenomenon,
both culturally and economically.

Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin) 
(May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989)