摇滚小子在2010年的一次演唱会上表演。

美国的流行歌手热衷于歌唱自己曾经去过以及今后要去的地方——歌曲中所提到的地方都有许多典故。

洛杉矶（Los Angeles）

麦莉•赛勒斯（Miley Cyrus）演唱的《美国派对》（Party in the USA）具体提到了她从田纳西州（Tennessee）纳什维尔（Nashville）到洛杉矶的旅程中经过的几个地方。歌词开头讲到自己飞抵洛杉矶最大的机场——洛杉矶国际机场（LAX）。她看见“好莱坞标牌”上的巨型字母，标志着美国电影和娱乐产业的中心。她在歌词中提到Jay-Z和布兰妮•斯皮尔斯（Britney Spears），吐露出希望成为世界级明星的志向。

旧金山（San Francisco）

奥蒂斯•雷丁（Otis Redding）在《坐在港湾码头》（The Dock of the Bay）中歌唱自己离开“家乡佐治亚州/前往旧金山港”的历程。在20世纪60年代，[去旧金山闯荡]对于像雷丁这样的美国黑人来说可能意味着巨大的社会和经济机遇，但也充满着巨大的不确定性。

科罗拉多州（Colorado）

落基山脉（Rocky Mountains）横贯北美大陆，全长4,800公里，最高峰埃尔伯特山（Mount Elbert）位于科罗拉多州。约翰•丹佛（John Denver）住在距此40英里外的科罗拉多州阿斯彭市（Aspen），其姓氏取自该州最大的城市——丹佛。他1972年推出的金曲《高高的落基山》（Rocky Mountain High）描绘了在落基山上观赏流星雨的场景。

堪萨斯州（Kansas）

格伦•坎贝尔（Glen Campbell）1968年的经典歌曲《威奇托架线工》（Wichita Lineman）描绘了美国中西部广袤开阔的土地以及沿路的电话线杆。然而，威奇托实际上是一个忙碌、喧嚣的都市，也是堪萨斯州最大的城市。其实这首歌的创作灵感来自作曲家吉米•韦伯（Jimmy Webb），他在开阔的俄克拉荷马州（Oklahoma）沃希托县（Washita County）看到一名电话线路维修工工作的场景，有感而发。韦伯和坎贝尔将沃希托改成了威奇托，因为威奇托听起来更顺耳。

61号高速公路（Highway 61）

鲍勃•迪伦（Bob Dylan）的《重访61号公路》（Highway 61 Revisited）以州际公路（美国61号公路）命名。这条公路从路易斯安那州（Louisiana）的新奥尔良（New Orleans）向北，几乎是沿着密西西比河（Mississippi River）延伸的。提到它是为了唤起大家对蓝调音乐历史的回忆：它连接了路易斯安那州的新奥尔良和巴吞鲁日（Baton Rouge）、田纳西州的孟菲斯（Memphis）、密西西比州（Mississippi）的克拉克斯代尔（Clarksdale）以及密苏里州（Missouri）的圣路易斯（St. Louis），更不必说（一直到1991年）还有迪伦的出生地明尼苏达州（Minnesota）的杜鲁斯（Duluth）。

密歇根州（Michigan）

2008年密歇根本地歌手摇滚小子（Kid Rock）在《整个夏天》（All Summer Long）中唱道：“那是北密歇根的夏日/在沙洲上踏浪/在篝火旁畅谈。”他歌唱的是自己熟稔深谙的地方——火炬湖（Torch Lake）。这里闻名遐迩的沙洲吸引了美国中西部的游客前来度假，他们或许会“在码头抓梭鲈”。

假如旅行乐队（Journey）的史蒂夫•佩里（Steve Perry）多了解密歇根州一些，或许就不会在《不要放弃信念》（Don’t Stop Believin）中提到“南底特律”（South Detroit）。底特律市中心以南有底特律河，再往南是加拿大安大略省（Ontario）的温莎市（Windsor）。

纽约（New York）

Jay-Z与艾莉西亚•凯斯（Alicia Keys）合唱的《帝国之州》（Empire State of Mind）十分具体地描述了几个地方。“州街560号”（560 State Street）是Jay-Z在1990年代后期曾经居住过的地方，在布鲁克林（Brooklyn）的波恩兰姆小丘（Boerum Hill）街区。Jay-Z夸口唱道，“搬离贝史蒂（Bed-Stuy）……住进三角地（TriBeCa）”，是指有了钱便从布鲁克林的贝德福-史蒂文生（Bedford-Stuyvesant）街区搬到曼哈顿的繁华地段，即“运河街以南的三角地带”（Triangle Below Canal Street）。

运河街同样在Lumineers乐队的热门歌曲《嗬-嘿》（Ho Hey）中出现过。韦斯利•舒尔茨（Wesley Schultz）唱道：“如果你搭乘巴士去唐人街，我会站在运河街和包厘街（Bowery）的交叉路口等你。” 美国许多城市的华裔聚居区都有车费便宜的巴士往返其间，而运河街与包厘街的交叉路口恰好是纽约中国城的中心。

Kid Rock performs at a 2010 concert.

American pop singers love to sing about the places they’ve been and the places they’re going — the locations they mention can say a lot.

Los Angeles

Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” drops a few specific references to her journey from Nashville, Tennessee, to Los Angeles. In the first verse, Cyrus lands at LAX, the biggest airport in Los Angeles. She sees “the Hollywood sign,” huge letters that mark the center of the American film and entertainment business. In the lyric, she mentions Jay-Z and Britney Spears, implying an ambition to become world famous.

San Francisco

Otis Redding sings in “The Dock of the Bay” about leaving his “home in Georgia/Headed for the Frisco Bay.” In the 1960s, for a black American like Redding, that would have meant going to a place that represented social and economic opportunities, but also enormous uncertainty.

Colorado

The Rocky Mountains run 4,800 km across North America, but their highest peak is Mount Elbert, in Colorado. John Denver, who lived 40 miles away in Aspen, Colorado, took his last name from the state’s largest city, and his 1972 hit “Rocky Mountain High” describes watching meteor showers in the mountains.

Kansas

Glen Campbell’s 1968 classic “Wichita Lineman” conjures up the vast, open stretches of land in the Midwestern United States and the telephone poles along their roads. However, Wichita is actually a busy, bustling city — the largest in Kansas. The song was actually inspired by songwriter Jimmy Webb seeing a telephone line repairman in wide-open Washita County, Oklahoma. Webb and Campbell changed Washita to Wichita because Wichita sounded better.

Highway 61

Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” is named after the interstate road (U.S. Route 61) that runs northward from New Orleans, Louisiana, roughly along the route of the Mississippi River. To mention it is to call up the history of the blues: It connects New Orleans with Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Memphis, Tennessee, as well as Clarksdale, Mississippi, and St. Louis, Missouri — not to mention, until 1991, Duluth, Minnesota, where Dylan was born.

Michigan

In 2008’s “All Summer Long,” where Michigan native Kid Rock sang “It was summertime in northern Michigan/Splashing through the sand bar/Talking by the campfire,” he was setting his song in a place he knew well: Torch Lake, whose famous sandbar attracts vacationers from America’s Midwest who might be seen “catching walleye from the dock.”

If Journey’s Steve Perry knew more about Michigan, he wouldn’t have mentioned “South Detroit” in “Don’t Stop Believin’.” South from downtown Detroit, you’ll find the Detroit River and then Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

New York

Jay-Z’s duet with Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind,” is very specific about locations. “560 State Street” is the address (in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill) where Jay-Z lived in the late 1990s. To be “out that Bed-Stuy ... down in TriBeCa,” as Jay boasts, is to have moved up economically from Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood to the booming Manhattan zone whose name is short for “Triangle Below Canal,” i.e. Canal Street.

Canal Street also turns up in the Lumineers’ hit “Ho Hey.” “If you took a bus to Chinatown,” Wesley Schultz sings, “I’d be standing on Canal and Bowery.” Cheap bus lines run between the Chinese neighborhoods of many American cities, and the intersection of Canal and Bowery is right in the middle of New York’s Chinatown.