Tom Fletcher, a vaudeville entertainer and the author of 100 Years of the Negro in Show Business, has stated that "Hogan was the first to put on paper the kind of rhythm that was being played by non-reading musicians."Ragging It, p.100. While the success of "All Coons Look Alike to Me" helped popularize the country to ragtime rhythms, its use of racial slurs created a number of derogatory imitation tunes, known as "coon songs" because of their use of racist and stereotypical images of black people. In Hogan's later years, he admitted shame and a sense of "race betrayal" from the song, while also expressing pride in helping bring ragtime to a larger audience.
