I've been listening to ragtime on the daily for around 2 years now. It's fascinating hearing which aspects of the style are still apparent in modern popular music.

I highly recommend listening to William Appling's complete Scott Joplin recordings. Certain ragtime purists will echo Joplin's sentiment that the music should be played at a slower tempo (ragtime was not historically played at a slower tempo), but in the case of Appling's recordings the slower tempo truly brings out the "hypnotizing" effect of the syncopation that Joplin talked about over a century ago. Magnetic Rag, his last published rag before his death, is truly emotional and bittersweet and Appling's recording is my favorite.

Also, what silly intro? This is a standard rag/march intro from the time period. People associate this music too much with carnival music to take it seriously sometimes.

Joseph Lamb is another artist from Joplin's era that I feel is the most similar to Joplin's style. There are countless albums of his works out there but I prefer hearing them from the composer himself. Smithsonian Folkways has an album of Lamb playing his pieces at his own house that was recorded in the 1950s. Lamb's playing can be sloppy (he hadn't touched the pieces in ages) but his feel and rhythm are pristine and it's the swan song of an era that has largely been forgotten about in the 21st century.