Music Is History combines Questlove's deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years.

Stretched on history's wheel -- Music is the message -- Past is prologue, and protest -- Cool like that -- The POV lane -- Having two parties -- Future to the back -- Disco tech -- An idea runs wild -- Teach the children -- Inside outside leave me alone -- History by the numbers -- Why does everybody have a bomb? -- File under -- Long for yesterday -- And you don't stop -- Greatness expectations -- Taste! How low can you go? -- Seeds of change -- Return of the impressed -- Furious styles -- Echo park -- X marks the spot -- In the sun I feel as one -- Present, tense -- You've got me feeling emotions -- Moving like you're standing still -- Fair and unfair use -- Things fall apart -- Things come together -- The bad minus -- Our twenty-first century.