12th Street Rag is a classic ragtime tune written by Euday L. Bowman and published in 1914, when ragtime piano was a popular dance and entertainment style in the United States. Over the following decades it was recorded in many arrangements and became a familiar piece of early American popular music. In recent years short, upbeat excerpts like this one have circulated on soundboards and in online videos, where creators use the tune as shorthand for an old-fashioned, light-hearted mood. Its bouncy rhythm and instantly cheerful tone help explain why a century-old melody still fits modern meme edits.