A musical road is a road, or section of a road, which when driven over causes a tactile vibration and audible rumbling that can be felt through the wheels and body of the vehicle. This rumbling is heard within the car as well as the surrounding area, in the form of a melody. Musical roads are known to exist in Hungary, Japan, South Korea, the United States, China, Iran, Taiwan, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Belarus, Russia and Turkey. In the past, they could be found in France, Denmark and the Netherlands as well.

Each note is produced by varying the spacing of strips in, or on, the road. For example, an E note requires a frequency of around 330 vibrations a second. Therefore, strips 2.4 in (61 mm) apart will produce an E note in a vehicle travelling at 45 mph (72 km/h).

Long before musical roads were being constructed, an earlier concept known as a rumble strip, were used since the 1950s to warn inattentive drivers of potential danger. The earliest known rumble strips were built in 1952 on the north and south lanes of the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. They consisted of three-foot strips of corrugated concrete that would produce a distinct humming sound when driven over, and also serve as reflectors for increased visibility. Later on, rolled-in strips on asphalt shoulders and formed-in strips on concrete shoulders were two of the earlier designs used in installing shoulder rumble strips by a number of U.S. states. A major limitation was that they had to be installed with new pavement. There were also difficulties in consistently obtaining the desired shape. In the 1980s, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission developed a milled-in rumble strip design that could be installed on existing pavement. A series of trials led to a preferred design of ½ inch deep and 7 inches by 16 inches, producing tire vibration and noise with much greater alerting capacity than the rolled-in installation. Specified dimensions could also be produced more consistently. Subsequently, many other U.S. states began to use this milled-in design because of its effectiveness and ease of installation. In the 1990s, several U.S. state transportation agencies and toll road authorities installed the milled-in shoulder rumble design pioneered in Pennsylvania, mostly on rural freeways and expressways.

The first known musical road, the Asfaltofon (English: Asphaltophone), was created in October 1995 in Gylling, Denmark, by Steen Krarup Jensen and Jakob Freud-Magnus [da], two Danish artists. The Asphaltophone was made from a series of raised pavement markers, similar to Botts' dots, spaced out at intermittent intervals so that as a vehicle passed over the markers, the vibrations caused by the wheels could be heard inside the car. The song played was an arpeggio in the key of F major. The second musical road was constructed in 2000 in Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Allegedly, the road was paved over just two years later, but some assert that the musical tones can still be heard while driving on it. Japan gained momentum in the realm of musical roads when, in 2007, Shizuo Shinoda unintentionally etched markings into a road with a bulldozer, discovering that they could produce distinct musical tones when driven over. Engineers in Sapporo, who had previously explored the use of infra-red light for detecting hazardous road conditions, embarked on further research into the development of musical roads. Presently, Japan boasts at least thirty musical roads, featuring tunes like the theme from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and "Always with Me" from the film Spirited Away. These roads are predominantly created for tourism purposes.

Nevertheless, several countries, including Indonesia, South Korea, and China, have implemented musical roads with a focus on safety. The Indonesian road, intriguingly designed to reduce traffic accidents, plays the familiar Happy Birthday song. The auditory stimulation helps keep drivers alert. Often, the songs on these roads can be properly heard only when driving at the correct, consistent speed. Lin Zhong, the Chinese general manager of the architecture company responsible for many of these roads in China, noted that this characteristic encourages people to maintain a constant speed limit to enjoy the musical effect. Various musical roads in China play the national anthem, as well as the overture from "Carmen" and "Ode to Joy." In 2022, the most recent addition to musical roads played the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China." As previously mentioned, Lancaster's musical road, established in 2008, holds the distinction of being the first-ever musical road in the United States.

In October 2014, a musical road in Tijeras, New Mexico, was created, featuring "America the Beautiful" on a two-lane stretch of U.S. Route 66. Some time later the road had faded, and there are no plans by the Department of Transportation to restore it due to the associated high costs. The third musical road in the United States, located at Auburn University in Alabama, plays the first seven notes of their college's fight song, "War Eagle." The most recent addition to the world of musical roads was established in the United Arab Emirates in January 2023, with ongoing testing and development to play the country's national anthem.

8 new musical roads are being installed along U.S. Route 66 in the US in time for the centenary of the road in 2026. Route 66 Musical Roads LLC are a US company developing this project and other stretches of musical highway for America's 250th celebration, also in 2026.

The Route 66 Musical Road project has been certified by the Route 66 Centennial Commission as an official project to celebrate the 100th birthday of the historic road.