American patriotic music

During the period prior to American independence, much of the country's patriotic music was aligned with the political ambitions of the British in the new land.

It contains the line "by uniting we stand, by dividing we fall", which was an overture to the feelings of common blood and origin the Americans had while fighting the French and Indian War, and also the first recorded use of the sentiment.

Political and cultural links between the colony and Great Britain perhaps explains the ongoing popularity of the two former tunes, despite the war for independence.

[3] However, in contrast to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" and "The Star-Spangled Banner", "America the Beautiful" does not have the triumphalism found in many patriotic American songs.

It was originally a poem composed by Katharine Lee Bates after she had experienced the view from Pikes Peak of fertile ground as far as the eye could see.

[citation needed] During the events leading up to the American Civil War, both the North and the South generated a number of songs to stir up patriotic sentiments, such as "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Dixie".

Such songs as "The Black KPs", likely labelled racist and offensive by modern listeners, were intended to rally the public behind the war effort.

"God Bless America", a song written by Irving Berlin in 1918, is sometimes considered an unofficial national anthem of the United States.