Music has helped tell America’s story from the very beginning, reflecting our triumphs, struggles and the many cultures and traditions that have shaped the country. On her “In Pursuit of Happiness” podcast, Judy Woodruff sat down with music historian Ted Gioia and music journalist Sidney Madden to explore how American music became a powerful expression of who we are.
Geoff Bennett:
Music has helped tell America’s story from the very beginning, reflecting the nation’s triumphs, its struggles, and the many cultures and traditions that have shaped it.
Amna Nawaz:
On Judy Woodruff’s latest “In Pursuit of Happiness” podcast, she sits down with music historian and author Ted Gioia and music journalist Sidney Madden to explore how American music became a powerful expression of who we are and why its diversity may be one of its greatest strengths.
Judy Woodruff:
Sidney, why do you think the Black experience has been such a powerful force throughout our music?
Sidney Madden, Music Journalist; I think it has a lot to do with the building blocks of America, which is collision, contradiction, and low-key violence.
Black people were not coming here from their own volition traditionally. The American slave trade is a violent past that some people still try to deny happened. But through that, and through that survival and resilience, there has been just this influx and overindexing of storytelling.
Judy Woodruff:
And listening to that, Ted, so much of that does come from these hard, hard circumstances. And yet over time there’s been a lot of celebratory music created, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra. I mean, you go down the list of American artists and different so many different genres of American — types of American music.
Is there is there one thread that runs through American music, or are there so many threads that it’s just impossible to narrow it, Ted?
Ted Gioia, Music Historian:
Well, as you know, I have a music newsletter called “The Honest Broker,” and I have a large number of subscribers. Many of them are professional musicians themselves or other music critics, so it’s a very knowledgeable audience of music lovers.
So I asked them last week, I asked them to tell me what was the quintessential American song or songs. So I wanted to tap into their wisdom. And I got back hundreds of responses immediately, I mean, just the overwhelming number of people commenting on this.
So the first thing I realized is that people feel strongly about this. When you ask them what is an American song, everybody has an opinion. And the sheer diversity of answers was amazing. The most popular response was “The Star-Spangled Banner” as played by Jimi Hendrix.
Sidney Madden:
That’s a good one.
Ted Gioia:
Number two was “American Tune” by Paul Simon. And the third most popular response is “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” by Gil Scott-Heron.
That shows you the diversity, I mean, that we’re covering a lot of — a wide range already. And people went on and they had all sorts of examples from every genre. There were people that told me, well, you got to have country music because this — it’s about our country. So you want American songs, it’s got to be country.
Or people will say hip-hop is the most real and rootsiest music of them all. Others think that these rock stadium anthems are just the thing to celebrate their Fourth of July barbecue. Some people wanted intensely patriotic songs and John Philip Sousa marches and “Yankee Doodle.” Other people wanted protest songs.
I mean, the sheer diversity of that was overwhelming. So the only thing I can say is, when you ask people about American music, it’s a free country, and everyone has got their opinion and they’re very outspoken about it. And that might be our strength when you get down to it, is that we have so many voices and so many passionate views.
And people really, really care about music in this country. And that’s a that’s a nice thing.
