With its "ragged" syncopations, European melodies, and roots in African-American jigs and marches, ragtime broke the colour bar and served as precursor to the stride, hot jazz and swing to come. Scott Joplin, ragtime's once and future king, published the first ragtime tune in 1899, but his true stardom only emerged with his early-'70s rediscovery. But oh to have lived among the sporting houses of New Orleans, when prodigious pianists like Jelly Roll Morton and bandleaders like W. C. Handy seduced high society with saucy syncopations that helped make ragtime the first African-American style to crack mainstream pop culture.