We asked 25 people to tell us about a song that captures the sound of the present, speaks to where American culture is going, or otherwise evokes this moment in time. Here are their answers, including one so evocative it was picked twice.

“What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye

Selected by Audrey Nuna

Rallying for peace, understanding, curiosity, and conversation in times of chaos takes strength, and finding the space for tenderness in times of conflict is the ultimate display of hope. This song came out over 50 years ago but rings true today and reminds me immediately of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance earlier this year. 

Nuna is a musical artist and songwriter, and the singing voice of Mira in the film KPop Demon Hunters. Her most recent album is Trench.

"What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes

Selected by Adam Lambert

This song has always felt like a protest. There’s something deeply American about the constant push between frustration and hope, between asking what the hell is going on and still believing there's something worth fighting for. In the current political climate, it hits differently, reminding us that questioning the system isn't weakness; it's exactly what we should be doing. And that hook! Everyone knows it. Everyone sings it—it turns one voice into many. It’s a reminder that, right now, more than ever, we need to show up together.

Lambert is lead singer of Queen + Adam Lambert, and is currently working on new solo music.

“Graceland” by Paul Simon

Selected by Jack Coyne

“Graceland,” like our country, is so many different things at once: heartbreak, joy, turmoil, hope. Its subject is a fading icon of American culture. It’s partially a reflection on our dark national history. You can hear the musical influences from around the world. More than anything, it’s a stunningly beautiful and timeless song.

Coyne is the host of the YouTube series Track Star; the Track Star podcast launched in September.

“The House That Built Me” by Miranda Lambert

Selected by Mickey Guyton

This is one of the most perfectly written and executed songs I have ever heard. I can't even get through it  without crying. It really defines America to me, because your home is what builds you. With all the turmoil going on in the world and in our country,  the most important thing we all need to remember—and this song makes you remember—is your home. We all want to focus on our families and live the lives we all dreamed of. That’s what this song is all about.

Guyton is a country music singer-songwriter; her latest album is Feels Like Christmas.

“The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire

Selected by Jennifer Egan

Arcade Fire is a Canadian band, and I doubt it had any intention of describing American culture, per se, when it released “The Suburbs” in 2010!  But to me, the song’s haunting mood and lyrics aptly describe where we are today: sifting through the rubble of our postwar affluence and belatedly reckoning with its costs to the natural world and to ourselves. The global goodwill that we took for granted has collapsed along with those flimsy postwar structures, and the thoughtless childhood screams of Baby Boomers like me now echo, in memory, through the violence that has come to riddle American life—both internally and geopolitically.

Egan is the author of A Visit From the Goon Squad. Her most recent novel is 2022’s The Candy House.

“Come as You Are” by Nirvana

Selected by Estevie

This is one of  my all-time favorite songs, and hearing it back, it feels exactly like this moment. The production is cold, distant, and uncertain, like the world lately, but within the song the lyrics feel warm and comforting. In a way, they reminded me of my community, and how even in all the darkness, people have been showing up for each other in such a beautiful way, finding ways to care, and creating warmth that feels like a hug.

Estevie is a cumbia pop artist. Her latest release is the EP La Traición y El Contrabando.

“For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield

Selected by Eric Church

My favorite thing about music is that it provides a timeless snapshot of how art and history sometimes repeat themselves. We are a prisoner of the moment. We think it’s never been like this before. We think we are unique in the time we live in. This song came out almost 60 years ago, but it sounds like it could have been written yesterday.

Church is a country artist; his latest release is Evangeline vs. the Machine

“Somewhere” by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim

Selected by Joshua Bell

Bernstein’s “Somewhere” is the emotional crux of his beloved musical West Side Story. It is a poignant expression of longing, in which Tony and Maria dare to hope for a better world, one free from hatred, violence, and division—one where their love can exist. Bernstein's masterpiece speaks to the timeless human desire to imagine a world kinder than the one we are living in, and insists that it must be possible.

Bell, a violinist and conductor, is music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in London and founder of the Chamber Orchestra of America.

“Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” by Woody Guthrie

Selected by Rosanne Cash

Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee" resonates at this wrenching moment in America, when immigrants are “chased like rustlers, outlaws, and thieves,” as Woody wrote. The song details how we dehumanize the deportees who “don’t have a name.” I wish this wasn’t the song of the moment. I hope that soon the song of our times will be another of his great songs: "This Land is Your Land.”

Cash is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame

“America” by Gloria Estefan

Selected by Gloria Estefan

I wrote this song to describe what our country has always meant to me. The lyrics hold both deep love and honest complexity in the same breath. They speak to a country that inspires pride and belonging, yet is still questioned and challenged by those who care about it most. The words also honor the spirit of immigrants—those who risk everything for hope, opportunity, and a chance to belong. Ultimately, the song defines America now because it embraces both devotion and doubt and, hopefully, captures a nation still becoming what it promises to be.

Estefan’s “America” appears on America’s Soundtrack, a new music collection; she is co-writing the music and lyrics for the original musical Basura, which will open in Atlanta in June.

“Power” by Ye

Selected by Nelson George

​​The fact that a mean and silly 79-year-old has sent the planet into a war without an actual plan makes Kanye West seem like a prophet. At a recent L.A. show he performed this song twice, which means even Ye, not exactly a clear thinker himself, knows it speaks to this moment. "No one man should have all that power" indeed.

George is an author, critic, and filmmaker.

“Nuevayol” by Bad Bunny

Selected by Yannick Nézet-Séguin

As a non-American artist, I recognize something in “Nuevayol” that resonates with my own experience in my adopted country: the feeling of a place that holds you while constantly transforming. Bad Bunny is singing about a New York that isn't mine by origin, and yet I hear in it the same restless, generative energy that has always made America a place where the world comes to reinvent itself. That openness, to me, is essential to the American idea: to welcome everyone and to be changed for good.

Nézet-Séguin is the music and artistic director of The Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He will be conducting the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s adaptation of George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo this fall.

“Alabama” by John Coltrane

Selected by Joy Harjo

This song was a memorial in response to the killing of four young Black girls by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Coltrane noted: "I know that there are bad forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.” That force is what we need today.

Harjo was the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate. Her latest book is Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age. Her new album of music is Insomnia and Seven Steps to Grace.

"Murder Most Foul" by Bob Dylan

Selected by Jeff Tweedy

Like the country itself, this song is vast and open to interpretation. It bears witness to the ongoing betrayals of our sacred trust in America through the lens of the Kennedy assassination—drawing parallels to the current cultural landscape while setting our trivialized trauma against the sound of a radio playing in the background.

Audacious, liberated forms of music—jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, along with all of their offshoots and permutations—convey the loftiest concept of American freedom. That says something about what we’re actually good at: expanding our spirits with irreverence and joy, through stories and dreams. The art we make is our collective saving grace and the one point of national pride I’ll never shake.

Tweedy is the frontman for Wilco. His latest solo project is Twilight Override.

“In the Red” by Abbey Lincoln

Selected by Samara Joy

“Rich folks say to keep on smiling, but poor folks pay the dues.” It’s one of my favorite lyrics— and songs—from Lincoln, released on a record called Straight Ahead in 1961. At the time, the uniquely written music, as well as the vocal stylings, spoke directly to the struggles of living under the weight of oppression, poverty, and racism. Today, we’re dealing with the same issues of underrepresented communities suffering consequences imposed by those in power. Many years have passed, and many strides have been made, yet it still feels like America has much more to learn before history stops repeating itself.

Joy, a jazz singer, is on tour throughout 2026; her latest album is Portrait.

“American Tune” by Paul Simon

Selected by Linda Ronstadt

One of the most profound contributions the United States has made to world culture has been the American popular song. Woven from the rich tapestry of immigration, these songs became the soundtrack for the Industrial Revolution, the World Wars, and the staggering social changes of the 20th century. For craft and talent, Paul Simon is, in my opinion, the finest popular songwriter in the second half of that century and is yet to be bested in the 21st. His masterful song “American Tune,” armed with keen insight and flashes of prescient wisdom, resonates today because we are once again living in an “uncertain hour,” a time when one of the nation’s most cherished notions—the idea that there should be an equal balance of power among the three branches of our government—is under attack by a dangerous movement toward autocracy. “American Tune” calls on us to recognize this, and to take steps to counter it.

 Ronstadt, a singer and musician, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

“Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw

Selected by Lainey Wilson

“Humble and Kind,” written by Lori McKenna, represents where America is right now. In a time that feels loud, divided, and fast-moving, people are craving something simple and steady. I think this song cuts through the noise regardless of age, background, or politics. No matter where you stand, everybody wants to be treated with respect. That’s why it lands so deep for me: It’s something we can still agree on—and if you don’t, well, you ain’t real humble and kind! 

Wilson was awarded the 2025 Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the Year.

“Shine” by Joni Mitchell

Selected by Brandi Carlile

Even though Joni wrote this song 20 years ago, the lyrics are jarringly prophetic. No truer words have been spoken, and no song is more relevant today. This song defines America for me because of Joni’s innate ability to point out the connective tissue between the minor infraction and mass destruction, the personal and the political. That rage is righteous. But in the midst of all the madness, chaos, and devastation, she never lets us forget the beauty that remains—what we should cherish and what we should keep. To me, even in our darkest hour, America is still that hopeful girl in a dreamy dress. Let her little light shine.

Carlile is a singer and songwriter; her latest album is Returning to Myself and she is currently on tour.

“Golden” by Huntr/x (from KPop Demon Hunters)

Selected by Jon Batiste

This is a phenomenal song that exemplifies the eclipsing of world cultures progressing exponentially across all forms of legacy and modern media platforms: an animated American K-pop musical dystopian thriller, the majority of the audience for which doesn't speak one of the  languages the characters are singing in. The American experiment, founded on the bedrock of Black, Indigenous and mixed heritage, was the blueprint for and portal into this new global cultural age, manifesting before us with each generation.

Batiste is a singer, songwriter and composer. He will be performing with orchestras in Atlanta, Denver, and Boston this spring.

“Imagine” by John Lennon

Selected by Kesha

I feel the tension in the air in America, and we see it on the news and in our phones. Yet I walk down the street and I smile. I see children chasing butterflies; I see kindness in the elderly man’s eyes. We are living in the most remarkable and profane moment humanity has ever witnessed. But life wants to be beautiful. People want to be safe and happy. I believe in people. I believe in freedom and peace.

Kesha is a singer and songwriter; her latest release is a 15th anniversary edition of Animal + Cannibal.

“All That Really Matters” by Illenium & Teddy Swims

Selected by Steve Aoki

The message in the lyrics is simple and powerful: All we really need is love. That idea feels especially important at this moment. Amid the tension and division in the world, music has the ability to remind us of our shared humanity. 

Aoki is a DJ and the founder of Dim Mak Records, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026.

"Morning, Morning” by the Fugs

Selected by Debbie Harry

“Morning, Morning” sounds an alarm that still echoes today. You hear that same urgency in tracks from different eras, like Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing In the Name” and Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” Artists have always used music to question authority and expose the cracks (and the crackpots) in the American story. Sometimes when a song hits that nerve, it has the power to wake people up—and sometimes that’s exactly what is needed.

Harry, a singer and songwriter, is lead vocalist for Blondie; their next album, High Noon, will be out this fall.

“God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)” by Randy Newman

Selected by Jason Isbell

A large number of American leaders and many of our average citizens seem to have forgotten what this song expresses so clearly: We are not a priority. The God in Randy’s brilliant dirge cares less for humanity than he does for “the lowliest cactus flower or the humblest yucca tree.” No one is coming to save us. Newman’s God is laughing at our prayers, sneering at our cries for help. Sounds like we may have to sacrifice a bit of greed and let go of this American curse of individualism and save our damn selves. 

Isbell is currently touring with his band, the 400 Unit.

“A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke

Selected by Greil Marcus

Cooke sang Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," but was not happy that it had taken a white boy to say what he as a Black American had not, so he wrote this song and blew past his comrade and rival with a piece of music that in its direct elegance matched the opening of the Declaration of Independence. It remains on the air and in the air because none of its questions have ever been framed with such passion and grace, and because its central question—when will America live up to its promises?—has never been answered.

Marcus is an author, journalist, and music critic. His latest book is Mystery Train, 50th Anniversary Edition: Images of America in Rock n’ Roll Music.

"What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye

Selected by Leon Thomas

This is one of those records that just transcends time. As humans, we go through cycles, and I'm seeing the correlation between what was happening at that time, during Vietnam, and now. The song really encapsulates all the different emotions you can feel as a human being—watching and not necessarily knowing what to do next. But there’s hope in asking the question.

Thomas is an R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer.