[1] The odd 45-minute length of the show was designed to break what ABC called the viewers' "almost automatic inclination" to tune in to NBC at 8:00 pm for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

[9] Premiering September 22, 1969, The Music Scene, said Billboard magazine, went “into high gear rapidly with the greatest soul singer of them all—James Brown—performing World.” Performances followed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Buck Owens; Oliver; Three Dog Night; and Tom Jones.

The program included a special film segment from The Beatles involving their (censored) performance of The Ballad of John and Yoko, and concluded with a comedic sketch built around the No.

Jack Gould of The New York Times said, “The show was clearly designed for a specific generation, something that apparently may be prevalent in the coming season.” The New York Post’s Bob Williams characterized the show as “a latter day version of The Hit Parade, drawing as it did on the new top pop tunes.” Similarly, Rick DuBrow of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch labeled the broadcast “Hit Parade 1969, sharply aimed at record buyers, a unique, brave attempt to be with it musically.” [11] Billboard’s Claude Hall concluded, “No other show on TV this season contains the same possibilities of communicating with the nation’s youth as does The Music Scene.” [10] Chart movement of songs raised the prospect of repeat performances, and Three Dog Night repeated Easy to Be Hard in a different setting, in the second broadcast of The Music Scene.

Other artists to appear that week included Eydie Gorme, Merle Haggard, Janis Joplin, Gary Puckett, and Lou Rawls.

[12] Appearing in succeeding broadcasts were Bobby Sherman, Roger Miller, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Dells, The Rascals, Steve Lawrence, Richie Havens, Jerry Butler, Herbie Mann,[13] Moms Mabley, Sonny James, Smith, Judy Collins, Isaac Hayes,[14] Jerry Lee Lewis, Ten Years After, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, R. B. Greaves, Joe Cocker,[15] Johnny Cash, Lulu, and Della Reese.

NBC's immensely popular Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In led off its prime time schedule, followed by hour-long comedy specials featuring Bob Hope and Flip Wilson.

[17] As The Music Scene remained in the bottom third of audience ratings, ABC announced in early November that it was cancelling the show (and its companion, The New People).