American folk musician Pete Seeger sings and plays banjo for a group of people that includes first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1944. Joseph A. HorneLong before the Revolutionary War, numerous traditions of Indigenous music flourished in places later incorporated into the United States. European music was heard in the New World from the earliest days of exploration and settlement. Disgruntled colonists in taverns and town squares borrowed British melodies to support new lyrics expressive of a developing national consciousness. After the U.S. became a nation in its own right, Francis Scott Key also pulled from British songs to pen the national anthem.
1944年，美国民谣音乐家皮特·西格为包括第一夫人埃莉诺·罗斯福在内的一群人演唱并弹奏班卓琴。约瑟夫·A·霍恩远在美国独立战争之前，后来并入美国版图的众多地区就已盛行着丰富的原住民音乐传统。自探险与殖民时代初期起，欧洲音乐便已传入新大陆。心怀不满的殖民者在酒馆和城镇广场借用英国旋律，填入表达新兴民族意识的新歌词。美国成为独立国家后，弗朗西斯·斯科特·基也借鉴英国歌曲创作了国歌。
Over the ensuing decades, the young nation incorporated the musical repertoires, instruments and expressions of immigrants from various European and African groups. While the restless spirit of musical reinvention continues today, it is a challenge to comprehend the full scope of how American music has evolved.
在随后的几十年里，这个年轻国家吸收了来自不同欧洲和非洲群体的移民所带来的音乐曲目、乐器和表达方式。尽管音乐创新的躁动精神延续至今，但要全面理解美国音乐的演变历程仍非易事。
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