At the turn of this century Scottish songs and songwriters were in European vogue. The pioneering work of Sarah Tytler and J. L. Watson, and the biographies and editions produced by Henry Lonsdale and Charles Rogers, have left us with a comprehensive catalogue of views and opinions about songs and songwriters in Scotland from the 1840s until the early 1900s. From then until recently there has been little interest in the genre of Scottish song; in its influence on Scottish writing in general; or in the large group of writers, both male and female, whose work clearly illustrates the importance of song as a literary and musical form throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Scottish writers, both musically literate and illiterate, dabbled in songwriting because song held a special place in Scottish society. Its popularity is simply revealed by the number of publications produced with unending enthusiasm for well over a century from the early 1700s.

A natural consequence of Scotland's publishing boom in the eighteenth century was the development of a thriving music publishing industry, which had been virtually nonexistent prior to the 1700s. By the 1770s and ‘80s the turnover in musical publications in Edinburgh alone was impressive, with at least thirty booksellers in the city dealing in music in addition to other publications, but music publishers also became established in Glasgow, Perth, Stirling and Aberdeen. Although some orchestral and chamber music was published, most of the musical publications produced in eighteenth-century Scotland were connected with traditional Scottish music. There was an interest in national songs and tunes elsewhere in the British Isles, but the number of publications of this sort in Scotland far surpassed those produced in England, Wales or Ireland at this time. Scottish song books were also varied, ranging from psalm tunes and hymns of the Church of Scotland to fiddle or bagpipe tunes arranged for voice and pianoforte, with newly created lyrics. Some song books appeared with melody lines, or with elaborate accompaniments for small ensemble. Others, beginning with Allan Ramsay's Scots Songs (1718), appeared with no music, but with the name of the melody and lyrics alone.