It is impossible to live in any of the 50 states in the U.S.A. and not know about schoolhouse classics like “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “This Land Is Your Land,” but those famous odes aren’t the only way to give a musical shout-out to America.
Since the country’s inception in 1776, artists have been tackling the complexities of living life under the stars and stripes with songs that both trumpet and deconstruct the concept of the American dream. Just as there’s a lot to be said in the country’s favor – the diverse cities, beautiful scenery, advancements in technology, culture and of course, music – there’s also a lot to be improved upon, as several of these musicians point out. Political divides, prejudice and poverty are unfortunately ever-present in the land of the free and the home of the brave, but hey, at least we’re free to talk – or sing – about what we need to do to fix it.
No matter your stance on the current state of things, there’s no shame in being proud of where you come from while simultaneously seeking change. Even that, in itself, is a deeply American value that we can all celebrate this July 4th.
So, in honor of the U.S.’s birthday, Billboard has hand-selected 30 songs talking about this big, great, complicated country of ours in their own special ways — from the critical (Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”) to the full-on celebratory (Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the U.S.A.”).
Find your next July 4th anthem below.
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Bonnie McKee, "American Girl"
Details: This non-album single reached No. 87 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2013.
Key “America” Lyric: “I wanna see all the stars and everything in between/ I wanna buy a new heart out of a vending machine/ ‘Cause It’s a free country so baby we can do anything (Whoa).”
Listen here.
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Lil Wayne, "God Bless Amerika"
Details: This was from the rapper’s eighth studio album, I Am Not a Human Being II, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in April 2013.
Key “America” Lyric: “My country tis of thee/ Sweet land of kill em all and let em die/ God Bless America/ this ol’ godless America.”
Listen here.
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Green Day, "American Idiot"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Details: This was the opening track and lead single from Green Day’s album of the same name. American Idiot was their seventh studio album; their second to top the Billboard 200 and their first to receive a Grammy nomination for album of the year. The song reached No. 61 on the Hot 100 in October 2004 and received a Grammy nod for record of the year.
Key “America” Lyric: “Don’t want to be an American idiot/ One nation controlled by the media/ Information age of hysteria/ It’s calling out to idiot America.”
Listen above.
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Madonna, "American Life"
Details: Three years after covering Don McLean’s “American Pie” (for the movie The Next Best Thing), Madonna released an “American” song of her own. This was the first single from Madonna’s album of the same name. American Life was Madonna’s ninth studio album; her fifth to top the Billboard 200. The song reached No. 37 in April 2003.
Key “America” Lyric: “I’d like to express my extreme point-of-view/ I’m not a Christian and I’m not a Jew/ I’m just living out the American dream/ And I just realized that nothing is what it seems.”
Listen here.
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Young the Giant, "Amerika"
Details: This was the opening track from the alternative rock band’s third studio album, Home of the Strange. The album reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 in September 2016.
Key “America” Lyric: “I’ve been looking for so long/ In Amerika/ Throw my hands in the air!”
Listen here.
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Brad Paisley, "American Saturday Night"
Details: This was the opening track and third single from Paisley’s album of the same name. It was Paisley’s eighth studio album; his second to climb as high as No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The song reached No. 67 on the Hot 100 in February 2010.
Key “America” Lyric: “It’s a French kiss, Italian ice/ Margaritas in the moonlight/ Just another American Saturday night.”
Listen here.
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John Mellencamp, "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to '60s Rock)"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Details: This was the third single from Mellencamp’s eighth studio album, Scarecrow. The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The single reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 in April 1986.
Key “America” Lyric: “Some are black and some are white/ Ain’t to proud to sleep on the floor tonight/ With the blind faith of Jesus you know that they just might/ be Rockin’ in the U.S.A.”
Listen above.
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Taylor Swift, "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince"
Details: “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” is a fan-favorite deep cut off Swift’s 2019 album Lover — although, is any song really a deep cut when it comes to the mega famous pop star? This lovesick track, set against a backdrop of dismay with the current state of affairs in the U.S., peaked at No. 49 on the Hot 100 and served as the opening number on Swift’s Eras Tour. It also inspired the title of the musician’s Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, which features Swift becoming more comfortable speaking out about politics.
Key “America” Lyric: “American glory faded before me/ Now I’m feeling hopeless, ripped up my prom dress.”
Listen here.
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Demi Lovato, "Made in the U.S.A."
Details: This was the second single from Lovato’s fourth studio album, Demi. The album reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The single reached No. 80 on the Hot 100 in August 2013.
Key “America” Lyric: “Our love was made in the U.S.A./ Made in the U.S.A.”
Listen here.
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Lana Del Rey, "American"
Details: This was from Del Rey’s EP Paradise, which reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200 in December 2012.
Key “America” Lyric: “Be young, be dope be proud/ Like an American.”
Listen here.
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Eminem, "White America"
Details: Hard to imagine a more provocative title. Leave it to Eminem. This was from The Eminem Show, the rapper’s third major-label studio album. The album topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks and received a Grammy nod for album of the year.
Key “America” Lyric: “The women and men who have broke their necks for the freedom of speech the United States Government has sworn to uphold, or (Yo’, I want everybody to listen to the words of this song) so we’re told…”
Listen here.
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Lenny Kravitz, "American Woman"
Details: Kravitz covered The Guess Who classic (which had topped the Hot 100 for three weeks in 1970) for the film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Kravitz’s version reached No. 49 on the Hot 100 and won a Grammy for best male rock vocal performance.
Key “America” Lyric: “I don’t need your war machines/ I don’t need your ghetto scenes/ Colored lights can hypnotize/ Sparkle someone else’s eyes/ Now woman, get away/ American woman, listen what I say.”
Listen here.
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Rihanna, "American Oxygen"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Details: This song summarizes one of the biggest American dream success stories to ever happen in the music industry: Rihanna, who famously immigrated from Barbados to pursue stardom in the U.S. (which you could say worked out pretty well).
Key “America” Lyric: “This is the American Dream/ Young girl, hustlin’ on the other side of the ocean/ You can be anything at all in America, America.”
Listen above.
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Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, "American Girl"
Details: This was the closing track on the band’s 1976 debut album, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Key “America” Lyric: “Well, she was an American girl/ Raised on promises/ She couldn’t help thinkin’ that there was a little more to life somewhere else.”
Listen here.
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Don McLean, "American Pie (Parts I and II)"
Details: This classic was the lead single and opening track from McLean’s sophomore album of the same name. The album topped the Billboard 200 for seven weeks and received a Grammy nomination for album of the year. The single topped the Hot 100 for four weeks in January and February 1972 and received Grammy nods for record and song of the year.
Key “America” Lyric: “So bye-bye, miss American pie/ Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.”
Listen here.
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Yvonne Wilder, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, "America"
Details: Hailing from one of the best-selling albums of the ’60s (the 1961 soundtrack to West Side Story), “America” — from the minds of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein — is a raucous musical tune that simultaneously celebrates and criticizes America from the perspective of Puerto Rican immigrants.
Key “America” Lyric: “Life is all right in America” / “If you’re all-white in America.”
Listen here.
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Khalid, "American Teen"
Details: The title track of Khalid’s debut album, “American Teen” tied together the themes of the R&B star’s breakthrough hits like “Location” and “Young, Dumb & Broke.”
Key “America” Lyric: “So wake me up in the spring/ While I’m high off my American dream/ We don’t always say what we mean/ It’s the lie of an American teen.”
Listen here.
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Carrie Underwood, "All-American Girl"
Details: “All-American Girl” rose to No. 27 on the Hot 100 in 2008, one of Underwood’s early career hits that solidified her as a star with staying power far beyond her tenure on American Idol.
Key “America” Lyric: “And now he’s wrapped around her finger/ She’s the center of his whole world/ And his heart belongs to that sweet little beautiful, wonderful, perfect all-American girl.”
Listen here.
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Kim Wilde, "Kids in America"
Details: This zesty hit reached No. 25 on the Hot 100 in August 1982. It was from Wilde’s debut album, Kim Wilde.
Key “America” Lyric: “Outside Suburbia’s sprawling everywhere/ I don’t want to go baby/ New York to East California/ There’s a new wave coming I warn you/ We’re the kids in America.”
Listen here.
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Ethel Cain, "American Teenager"
Details: A single from her breakthrough album Preacher’s Daughter, “American Teenager” arguably put Ethel Cain on the map. Even President Obama is a fan of the song, putting it on his year-end favorite music list in 2022.
Key “America” lyric: “The neighbor’s brother came home in a box/ But he wanted to go, so maybe it was his fault/ Another red heart taken by the American dream.”
Listen here.
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Kenny Chesney, "American Kids"
Details: A nostalgic tribute to the complexity and simplicity of growing up in the rural U.S., “American Kids” topped the Billboard Country Airplay chart in 2014.
Key “America” Lyric: “We were Jesus save me, blue jean baby/ Born in the USA/ Trailer park truck stop, faded little map dots/ New York to LA.”
Listen here.
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Shea Diamond, "American Pie"
Details: This original song — not a cover of the Don McLean classic with the same title — was a highlight of the 2018 EP Seen It All by the singer, songwriter and transgender rights activist.
Key “America” Lyric: “Just want my piece of the American pie/ Got your slice, where is mine/ Lick my fingers on this thing called life.”
Listen here.
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James Brown, "Living in America"
Details: This song reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 in March 1986, Brown’s highest charting hit since “I Got You (I Feel Good)” more than 20 years earlier. It was taken from the Rocky IV soundtrack and was also featured on Brown’s 53rd (!) studio album, Gravity. The song brought Brown a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance, male.
Key “America” Lyric: “Living in America — hand to hand, across the nation Living in America/ Got to have a celebration/ You might not be looking for the promised land, but you might find it anyway.”
Listen here.
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The Beach Boys, "Surfin' U.S.A."
Details: One of the Beach Boys’ best-known hits, “Surfin’ U.S.A.” peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 1963. The single also served as the title track to the (non-surfing) Cali band’s second album.
Key “America” Lyric: “If everybody had an ocean/ Across the U.S.A./ Then everybody’d be surfin’/ Like Californ-I-A.”
Listen here.
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Simon & Garfunkel, "America"
Details: This melancholy ballad was from the duo’s fourth studio album, Bookends, their first to top the Billboard 200 and their first to receive a Grammy nod for album of the year. The song was finally released as a single in the 1972, to coincide with the release of Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. It peaked at No. 97 in November 1972, just after Richard Nixon’s landslide re-election. Coincidence? You decide.
Key “America” Lyric: “Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, they’ve all gone to look for America.”
Listen here.
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Estelle feat. Kanye West, "American Boy"
Details: This ultra-catchy classic with Kanye West is easily Estelle’s biggest career hit, reaching a No. 9 peak on the Hot 100 in September 2008. It received a Grammy nod for song of the year.
Key “America” Lyric: “Take me to New York, I’d love to see L.A./ I really want to come kick it with you/ You’ll be my American boy.”
Listen here.
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Miley Cyrus, "Party in the U.S.A."
Details: This pop classic logged three weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in August and September 2009, becoming Cyrus’ highest charting hit to that point. It was featured on Cyrus’ The Time of Our Lives EP, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
Key “America” Lyric: “And I got my hands up/ They’re playin’ my song/ I know I’m gonna be ok/ Yeah, it’s a party in the USA.”
Listen above.
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Childish Gambino, "This Is America"
Details: Childish Gambino’s stunning “This Is America” song and video one-two punch was one of the most talked-about cultural moments in all of 2018. On the project, musician-actor Donald Glover held a mirror up to country’s rampant police brutality, gun violence, racism and class struggles, earning his first ever Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit in the process. “This Is America” won four Grammys, including record and song of the year.
Key “America” Lyric: “This is America/ Don’t catch you slippin’ now/ Look at how I’m livin’ now/ Police be trippin’ now/ Yeah, this is America/ Guns in my area.”
Listen here.
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Kate Smith, "God Bless America"
Details: The O.G. of patriotic pop songs, “God Bless America” dates back to 1918 when GOAT songwriter Irving Berlin first sketched out some lyrics about being grateful to the U.S.A. It wasn’t until 1938 that he finished the song and delivered it to Kate Smith, who made it an overnight sensation by performing it on her radio show.
Key “America” Lyric: “From the mountains, to the prairie, to the oceans white with foam / God bless America, my home sweet home.”
Listen here.
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Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the U.S.A."
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Details: This oft-misunderstood classic was the third single from The Boss’ album of the same name. It was his seventh studio album; his second to top the Billboard 200 and his first to receive a Grammy nomination for album of the year. The song reached No. 9 on the Hot 100 in January 1985 and received a Grammy nod for record of the year.
Key “America” Lyric: “Nowhere to run/ ain’t got nowhere to go/ Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.”
Listen above.