In Pursuit of Happiness with Judy Woodruff
Jul 30, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
Music has long been one of America's most influential cultural exports. In this episode of "In Pursuit of Happiness," Judy Woodruff talks with music historian Ted Gioia and journalist Sidney Madden…
Ted GioiaGuest
Sidney MaddenGuest
Judy WoodruffHost
We don't usually think of music when we think of American history, but it's been there going back to the very beginning.
Ted, did music even have a presence at the founding of our country? We know that the Folks who came from Europe brought their kind of music.
We know certainly though enslaved people brought their music from the African continent.
America's always been a melting pot country and people came here and they usually had to give up many things to come here.
So these took on special importance in American life and every cultural community fostered their own music, shared it with the next generation and shared it with each other.
In the early days, almost all of the music in the American music business was pirated.
would steal songs from other countries uh music publishers in the u.s would take songs published in england and elsewhere and publish them illegally without copyright protection and so there's this undercurrent of theft that occurs in american music almost from the start even to the point that our national anthems borrowed from a british song as his So there's this extraordinary mixture of pride, shame, self-expression, and out-and-out robbery that have continued to be major parts of American music ever since that time.
Ted, when you think about the way music has evolved over time, do you go back that far or do you, where do you start when you think about how American music has become what it is today?
I've seen books on American history that look at music and start in 1776, which is a great period as well.
I think it's fair to say most people have no awareness of that or very little awareness of that.
We don't usually think of music when we think of American history, but it's been there going back to the very beginning.
Ted, did music even have a presence at the founding of our country? We know that the Folks who came from Europe brought their kind of music.
We know certainly though enslaved people brought their music from the African continent.
America's always been a melting pot country and people came here and they usually had to give up many things to come here.
So these took on special importance in American life and every cultural community fostered their own music, shared it with the next generation and shared it with each other.
In the early days, almost all of the music in the American music business was pirated.
would steal songs from other countries uh music publishers in the u.s would take songs published in england and elsewhere and publish them illegally without copyright protection and so there's this undercurrent of theft that occurs in american music almost from the start even to the point that our national anthems borrowed from a british song as his So there's this extraordinary mixture of pride, shame, self-expression, and out-and-out robbery that have continued to be major parts of American music ever since that time.
Ted, when you think about the way music has evolved over time, do you go back that far or do you, where do you start when you think about how American music has become what it is today?
I've seen books on American history that look at music and start in 1776, which is a great period as well.
I think it's fair to say most people have no awareness of that or very little awareness of that.
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