I. 1620-1865 : 1. A new nation conceived in liberty ... : Songs of the colonies ; Psalmody ; Broadsides ; Mother Goose ; The musical theater in the colonies ; American ballad operas and pasticcios ; The ballads and dialogue songs of the Virginia cavaliers ; William Billings ; The Revolution ; Songs of the Revolution

2. In freedom we'll live: the first half century : Songsters ; Political songs and our first national ballads ; International tensions ; Songs of the War of 1812 ; Samuel Wordsworth ; Early songs of transportation ; The early musical theater ; Early negro songs and minstrels ; The banjo ; "Daddy" Rice

3. America singing: some early folk music : Spirituals and ballads ; The American Folk Festival at Asheville ; Songs of the western migration and play parties ; Spirituals, sorrow songs, shouts and roustabouts ; The Jubilee Singers

4. Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones: the Minstrel Show : Dan Emmett ; The Virginia minstrels ; Bryant's minstrels ; The Christy minstrels ; Ed Christy ; Stephen Foster ; Other songs of minstrelsy ; The last minstrels ; Black minstrel companies ; James A. Bland

5. Of ballads, songs and snatches : John Hill Hewitt ; Henry Russell ; Sentimental balladry ; Septimus winner ; National ballads ; War with Mexico ; Songs of the Mexican-American War ; Presidential campaign songs, 1840-1848 ; The California gold rush and its songs ; "Old Put"

6. A house divided against itself : The Hutchinson family ; Temperance songs ; Anti-slavery songs ; Presidential campaign songs of 1860 ; The Civil War ; Songs of the Civil War ; Henry Clay work ; George Frederick Root ; Will S. Hays.

II. 1865-1900 : 7. The cruel war is over : Extravaganzas and burlesque extravaganzas ; Harrigan and Hart ; Vaudeville ; Tony Pastor ; Lillian Russell ; Songs and ballads of the reconstruction ; Hart Pease Danks ; Joseph P. Skelly ; Harry Kennedy ; Charles A. White ; Railroad songs ; Cowboy songs ; Negro work songs ; Songs of the coal mine ; Badman ballads

8. A new breed of publisher : Newcomers among publishers ; Paul Dresser ; Charles K. Harris ; Union square ; Song pluggers ; The1890's ; Sentimental ballads ; James Thornton ; Dresser's greatest ballads ; Monroe Rosenfeld ; Joseph W. Stern and Edward B. Marks ; Irish ballads ; "Coon" songs ; The Cakewalk ; Nonsense songs ; The singing telegram

9. The musical theater: from extravaganza to operetta : "A Trip to Chinatown" ; Weber and Fields ; Joseph Stromberg ; The invasion of foreign operettas and comic opera ; Early American operettas and comic operas ; Early American operettas and comic operas ; Willard Spencer ; John Philip Sousa ; Reginald de Koven ; The early Victor Herbert

10. Way down yonder in New Orleans: the birthplace of Jazz : Storyville ; Ragtime ; Blues ; Buddy Bolden ; "Kid" Ory ; Sidney Bechet ; Joe "King" Oliver ; Stale bread the the "Spasm" band ; "Jelly Roll" Morton ; Tony Jackson ; Preservation Hall

11. The end of a century : A wave of chauvinism ; John Philip Sousa ; The War with Spain ; Songs of the Spanish-American War ; Songs of the Armed Forces.

III. 1900-1920 : 12. A new century: new vistas for popular music : Expanding America ; Tin pan alley ; Sheet music best-sellers ; Harry von Tilzer ; Albert von Tilzer ; Theodore F. Morse ; Piano rags ; Scott Joplin ; James Scott ; Joseph Lamb ; Eubie Blake ; Ben Harney ; Attacks and defenses of Ragtime ; Felix Arndt ; Zez Confrey ; Ragtime Songs ; Lewis F. Muir ; The early Irving Berlin ; Vogue for social dancing ; Vernon and Irene Castle ; More Irving Berlin early classics ; Jean Schwartz ; Percy Wenrich ; Ernest R. Ball

13. The musical stage in transition: Vaudeville, Burlesque, Revue, extravaganza, operetta, musical comedy : The heyday of Vaudeville ; Gus Edwards ; Bert Williams ; Sophie Tucker ; Emma Carsus ; Eva Tanguay ; Nora Bayes ; Burlesque ; Amateur nights ; The Revue ; Florenz Ziegfeld ; Fanny Brice ; Eddie Cantor ; The passing show ; Fred and Adele Astaire ; Hippodrome extravaganzas ; Winter garden extravaganzas ; Al Jolson ; More Victor Herbert ; Otto Hauerbach (Harbach) ; Rudolf Friml ; Sigmund Romberg ; Musical comedy ; George M. Cohan ; Jerome Kern ; The Princess Theater shows

14. New sounds, new voices in Tin Pan Alley : Commercial blues ; W.C. Handy ; Spencer Williams ; Clarence Williams ; New faces in Tin Pan Alley ; Fred Fisher ; Harry Carroll ; Richard A. Whiting ; Egbert Van Alstyne ; Gus Kahn ; Walter Donaldson ; Harry Ruby ; Bert Kalmar ; George W. Meyer ; Milton Ager ; George Gershwin ; Irving Caesar

15. To make the world safe for democracy : Europe at war ; American pacifist spirit and its songs ; America at war ; Songs of World War I ; The War-Oriental musical theater ; Escapist songs ; The immediate post-war period.

IV. 1920-1940: 16. The Jazz Age : The "Roaring" Twenties ; Jazz in Chicago ; Bix Beiderbecke ; Louis Armstrong ; Scat singing ; Earl "Fatha" Hinse ; Boogie Woogie ; Jazz in New York ; Fletcher Henderson ; Paul Whiteman ; Ferdie Grofe ; Red Nichols ; Ben Pollack ; Jean Goldkette ; Duke Ellington ; Race recordings ; Classic blues ; Ma Rainey ; Bessie Smith ; Symphonic Jazz ; Gershwin's concert works ; Other jazz-oriented symphonic works

17. Tin Pan Alley abandons 28th Street: the popular music industry in the 1920's : Tin Pan Alley invades the theatrical district ; Fred Ahlert ; Louis Alter ; Joseph A.B urke ; Hoagy Carmichael ; Con Conrad ; J. Fred Coots ; Sammy Fain ; Joseph Meyer ; Jarry Tierney ; Songs of the Twenties ; The birth of motion pictures ; Motion picture theme stones ; Erno Rapee

18. The phonograph and radio invade the American home : The birth of recorded music ; Its early history ; Early song recordings ; Frank Crumit ; Gene Austin ; Birth and early history of radio ; Radio's first performers and songs ; Vaughn De Leath ; A boom in the record sales ; The Mills brothers ; The Andrews sisters ; Juke box ; Radio in he 1930's ; Singing commercials ; The disc jockey ; Rudy Vallee ; Bing Crosby ; Kat Smith ; Morton Downey ; Arthur Tracey ; Maurice Chevalier ; Eddie Cantor ; The Boswell sisters ; Radio hit songs ; "Your Hit Parade" ; Radio instrumental music ; Muzak

19. The ASCAP and BMI story : The history of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) ; The history of BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated)

20. Hillbilly music : Hillbilly music on records and radio ; The Carter family ; Jimmie Rodgers ; Grand Ole Opry ; Dave Macon ; Roy Acuff ; Bob Wills ; Country swing

21. The era of the great dance bands : Social dances of the twenties ; The first dance bands ; George Olsen ; Vincent Lopez ; Isham Jones ; Fred Waring ; Ben Bernie ; Ted Weems ; Red Nichols and the Five Pennies ; Ted Fiorito ; Glen Gray and the Casa Loma orchestra ; Guy Lombardo ; Leo Reisman ; Woody Herman ; Cab Calloway ; The Dorseys ; Swing ; Benny Goodman ; Gene Krupa ; Harry James ; Count Basie ; Jimmie Lunceford ; Artie Shaw ; Glenn Miller ; Band vocalists ; Mildred Bailey ; Billie Holiday ; Café society, downtown ; Ella Fitzgerald ; Ethel Waters

22. Heyday of the musical theater : The Plush Revue ; The Ziegfeld Follies ; George White's scandals ; Ann Pennington ; De Sylva, Brown and Henderson ; The Greenwich village follies ; Ted Lewis ; Artist and models ; Earl Carroll vanities ; The Music Box Revue ; All-negro revues ; Sissle and Blake ; Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields ; "Fats" Waller ; The Intimate Revue ; The Grand Street follies ; Arthur Schwartz ; Rodgers and Hart ; The song lyric ; The little shows ; Howard Dietz ; George S. Kaufman ; Vernon Duke ; Musical comedies by Jerome Kern ; Oscar Hammerstein II ; George and Ira Gershwin ; Ethel Merman ; Vincent Youmans ; Herbert Fields ; De Sylva, Brown and Henderson ; Irving Berlin ; Cole Porter ; Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse ; Mary Martin ; Kurt Weill ; The dusk of operetta ; Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml

23. The silent screen erupts into sound : Early history of the talkies ; The "Jazz Singer" ; Nacio Herb Brown ; Arthur Freed ; The first "Oscars" ; The earliest screen musicals ; Theme songs ; Harry Warren and Al Dubin ; The child, Judy Garland ; Gordon and Revel ; Ralph Rainger ; Johnny Mercy ; The songwriter's hall of fame ; The singing cowboy ; Gene Autry ; Roy Rogers ; Tex Ritter ; Tex Williams ; Broadway composers in Hollywood ; Harold Arlen E.Y. Harburg ; Screen biographies of popular musicians ; Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers ; Original background music and scoring ; Leo F. Forbstein ; Max Steiner ; The click track ; Rich Wolfgang Korngold ; Alfred Newman ; The death of Tin Pan Alley

24. The troubled thirties: workers of America arise : The Great Depression ; Songs of the Depression years ; Social-conscious Revues ; Harold Rome ; Marc Blitzstein ; Songs of the Labor Movement ; Ralph Chaplin ; Joe Hill ; Aunt Molly Jackson ; Merle Travis ; Ella May Wiggins ; Maurice Sugar ; The Left Wing embraces folk music ; Leadbelly ; Josh White ; Woody Guthrie ; Burl Ives ; Earl Robinson ; The gathering war clouds.

V. 1940-1950 : 25. The war years : Early songs of World War II ; Frank Loesser ; Irving Berlin ; Jule Styne ; Sammy Cahn ; Militant songs and comedy songs ; Hollywood and Braodway during the War ; James Van Heusen ; Sammy Cahn ; More screen biographies of popular musicians ; Broadway musicals during the war ; George M. Cohan's last years ; The "Georgie Award" ; Leonard Bernstein ; Betty Comden and Adolph Green ; The musical play ; Rodgers and Hammerstein ; The war's end

26. The gentle art of tune lifting : The "Tchaikovsky Year" ; Borrowings from the Classics before 1941 ; Victor Herbert vs. Musical Courier ; Musical borrowings on Broadway ; Tune lifting after 1941 ; Plagiarism Suits

27. The swing era becomes the sing era : The intensification of the recording room ; Recording developments ; The "A and R" director ; Perry Como ; Frankie Lane ; Nat "King" Cole ; Billy Eckstine ; Frank Sinatra ; Doris Day ; Dinah Shore ; Margaret Whiting ; Peggy Lee ; Sarah Vaughan ; Dinah Washington ; Mabel Mercer

28. The sound of Jazz in the forties : Jazz in the forties ; Vaughn Monroe ; 52nd Street, the street of swing ; Bebop ; Dizzy Gillespie ; Charlie "Bird" Parker ; Thelonius Monk ; Art Tatum ; Erroll Tatum ; Woody Herman's "Herds" ; Stan Kenton ; Progressive jazz ; Cool jazz ; Lenny Tristano

29. The folk singer and the folk song enter the mainstream of popular music : Hootenannies ; Folk music over the radio ; Pete Seeger ; The Weavers ; Oscar Brand ; Susan Reed ; Folk influences on popular music ; Billy Hill

30. Musical comedy versus the musical play: 1946-1950 : Irving Berlin ; Jule Styne ; Frank Loesser ; Harold Arlen ; Pearl Bailey ; Rodgers and Hammerstein ; Burton Lane ; Lerner and Loewe ; Cole Porter ; Kurt Weill ; The Donaldson awards ; The Antoinette awards ; The drama critics circle awards

31. The movies, the radio, and now television: the early post-war years : More screen biographies of popular musicians ; Sound track dubbings ; Background music and scoring ; Bernard Herman ; Miklos Rozsa ; Hugo Friedhofer ; John Green ; Franz Waxman ; Dimitri Tiomkin ; Bronislau Kaper ; Victor Young ; David Raksin ; Radio music in the forties ; "Stop the Music" and other music quiz shows ; Early television ; The "Emmy."

VI. 1950-1960 : 32. Music is heard and seen: radio and television in the fifties : TV takes over musical programs from radio ; "Your Hit Parade" on TV ; Other TV productions ; The George Foster Peabody awards ; Songs first popularized over TV ; TV theme music ; David Rose Henry Mancini ; TV theme music becomes hit records ; TV commercials become popular songs ; TV creates singing stars ; Dean Martin ; Rosemary Clooney ; Tony Bennett ; Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme ; Pat Boone ; Andy Williams ; Wayne Newton ; The disc jockey in the fifties ; The charts ; Payola and its history ; Conflicts of interest in the music industry

33. The music goes round and round: the revolving disk : The further expansion of the record industry ; New recording artists ; Patti Page ; Eddie Fisher ; Johnnie Ray ; Connie Francis ; Teresa Brewer ; Johnny Mathis ; The Ames Brothers ; Les Paul and Mary Ford ; The four aces ; The Platters ; New songwriters invade the best-selling record charts ; Richard Adler and Jerry Ross ; Bob Merrill ; Folk music into popular songs ; "Gold" and "platinum" records ; The record industry association of America ; "Sing along with Mitch" The Grammy ; The National Academy of recording arts and sciences ; The recording hall of fame

34. I've got rhythm and blues

and jazz : Rhythm and blues (R and B) ; Louis Jordan ; Chuck Berry ; Little Richard ; R.B. King ; Jazz resurgence ; The Newport Jazz Festival ; Cool jazz ; Gerry Mulligan ; Miles Davis ; "Jazz rock" The modern jazz quartet ; Mel Tormé ; Jazz in the movies

35. The rock revolution : Rock is born ; "Covers" ; Bill Haley ; The social climate of the fifties ; Elvis Presley ; Rock movies ; Buddy Holly Jerry Lee Lewis ; The Everly Brothers ; "Fats" Domino ; Folk rock ; The Kingston Trio ; Paul Anka ; Bobby Darin ; Ricky Nelson ; The American Bandstand and Dick Clark ; Illicit lyrics ; Adult hostility to rock

36. Hillbilly becomes country and western : Ernest Tubb ; Hank Snow ; Eddie Arnold ; Hank Williams ; Johnny Cash ; The Nashville sound ; Chet Atkins ; John D. Loudermilk ; Fred Rose ; Marty Robbins ; Boudleaux and Felice Bryant ; Roy Orbison

37. The Hollywood scene in the fifties : More screen biographies of popular musicians ; More dubbing ; Theme songs and title songs ; "Oscar" awards ; Golden Globe awards ; Scoring and background music ; Andre Previn ; Alex North ; Elmer Bernstrein ; Walter Scharf ; Ernest Gold ; Leonard Rosenman ; The modus operandi of scoring and background music ; Broadway musicals into screen musicals ; Outstanding original screen musicals

38. "The Broadway Melody" : The end of Rodgers and Hammerstein ; Frank Loesser ; Lerner and Loewe ; Leonard Bernstein ; Adler and Ross ; Bob Merrill ; Cole Porter ; Irving Berling ; Harold Arlen ; Arthur Schwartz ; Jule Styne ; Stephen Sondheim ; Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick ; Sammy Davis, Jr. Meredith Wilson ; Albert Hague.

VII. Since 1960 : 39. Rock around the clock ... : The English rock invasion ; The Beatles ; The Rolling Stones ; Herman's hermits ; The Dave Clark Five ; The Tottenham Sound ; Led Zeppelin ; Elton John ; Petula Clark ; Tom Jones ; Engelbert Humperdinck ; Gilbert O' Sullivan ; San Francisco, the Liverpool of the West ; The Fillmore Auditorium ; The Avalon ballroom ; Acid rock ; Jefferson airplane ; Psychedelic soul ; Big brother and the holding company ; Janis Joplin ; The Discotheque ; The Twist ; Los Angeles rock ; The Byrds ; The 5th Dimension ; The Monkees ; The Mamas and Papas ; The Doors ; Three Dog Night ; The Carpenters ; The Four Seasons ; The association ; The Rascals ; Blood, sweat and tears ; The Who

40. Rebels with a cause : Protest in the 1960's ; Coffee houses and folk music ; Joni Mitchell ; Newport Folk Festival ; Joan Baez ; Urban folk music ; Bob Dylan ; The Band ; Folk rock ; Judy Collins ; Buffy Sainte-Marie ; Paul Simon ; Arlo Guthrie ; Songs of the Civil Rights Movement ; Songs of Women's liberation ; Helen Reddy ; Janis Ian ; Phil Ochs

41. Nashville Alley

and country sounds elsewhere : Nashville as the capital of Country and Western ; Robert Altman's Nashville ; Roy Clark ; Roger Miller ; Glen Campbell ; Kris Krostofferson ; Progressive Nashville ; Charley Pride ; Loretta Lynn ; Tammy Wynette ; Lynn Anderson ; Nashville West, Bakersfield ; Buck Owens ; Merle Haggard ; Jim Webb ; Bobbie Gentry ; Charlie Rich ; John Prine ; Bluegrass ; "Bill" Monroe ; Platt and Scruggs ; The Osborne brothers ; Olivia Newton-John

42. Black power

and soul : Black power in the entertainment world ; A return to rhythm and blues ; Gospel ; Mahalia Jackson ; Odetta ; Soul ; James Brown ; Ray Charles ; Sam Cooke ; Otis Redding ; The Memphis Sound ; Aretha Franklin ; Nina Simone ; Natalie Cole ; Al Green ; Isaac Hayes ; Detroit Sound ; Motown records ; Stevie Wonder ; Sweet Soul ; The Supremes; Diana Ross ; Roberta Flack ; Dionne Warwick ; Della Resses ; Gospel into jazz ; John Coltrane

43. Today's troubadours: the performing composer : Burt Bacharach ; Neil Diamond ; Neil Sedaka ; Harry Nilsson ; Randy Newman ; Rod McKuen ; Leonard Cohen ; Don McClean ; Carol King ; Laura Nyro ; James Taylor ; Carly Smon ; John Denver ; Paul Williams ; Jim Croce

44. On Broadway

and off : Richard Rodgers ; Irving Berlin ; Frank Loesser ; Stephen Sondheim ; Lerner and Loewe ; Jerry Bock ; Jule Styne ; Meredith Willson ; Harold Rome ; Burton Lane ; Jerry Herman ; Charles Strouse ; John Knader ; Cy Coleman ; Andre Previn ; Burt Bacharach ; Stephen Schwartz ; Harvey Schmidt ; Off Broadway ; Mitch Leigh ; Rock musicals ; Black-oriented musicals ; Melvin van Peebles ; Nostalgia in the musical theater ; Barbra Streisand ; Bette Midler ; Liza Minnelli ; Melba Moore

45. The decline and fall of the Hollywood empire : TV since 1960 ; Big screen musicals from Broadway productions ; Original screen musicals ; Richard and Robert Sherman ; Nostalgia in the movies ; Old songs and old recordings for new productions Henry Mancini ; Academy Award songs ; Background music and scoring since 1960 ; Fred Karlin ; Lionel Newman ; John Williams ; Marvin Hamlisch ; Maurice Jarre ; Michel Legrand ; Lalo Schifrin ; Quincy Jones ; Jerry Goldsmith ; Lawrence Rosenthal ; The decline in screen music.