The American Songbook

No country has given the world more music than the United States. Jazz, blues, country, gospel, bluegrass, rock and roll, soul, funk, disco, and hip-hop—every one of them was born on American soil, and together they have become the closest thing humanity has to a shared soundtrack. The story runs the republic's full 250 years, and it is the story of America itself: peoples who arrived from everywhere—willingly and in chains—carrying melodies that collided, merged, and produced something the world had never heard. The nation was born singing.