Amateurs and executants -- The ragtime life -- Everybody's doin' it -- Alexander's got a jazz band now -- Cake eaters and hooch drinkers -- The king of jazz -- The record, the song, and the radio -- Sons of Whiteman -- Swing that music -- Technology and its discontents -- Walking floors and jumpin' jive -- Selling the American ballad -- Rock the joint -- Big records for adults -- Teen idyll -- Twisting girls change the world -- Say you want a revolution -- Epilogue: the rock blot and the disco diagram.