We are stranded on the side of the road of Lancaster, California.

Kelsey, describe what we can see right now.

So in front of us, there's not a bunch.

There's definitely some cars behind us.

But other than that, there's a few little buildings out there.

Yeah.

We're on a flat, deserted, basically deserted road.

Where, again, everything is the same shade of tan.

There's just, like, scrub and sand surrounding us.

It's very beautiful. And then behind us, which we're about to go drive, is the musical road.

The musical road.

13 years ago, my friend Kelsey and I went on a road trip. We were 19 and we had all the time in the world to explore. While driving around

and blasting music, Kelsey remembered something she had recently seen in a TV commercial,

a road with a song carved into the pavement.

I'm Kimmy Gregory, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we're going on a road trip, where the road isn't just the journey, it's the destination.

We're going to learn about the science and engineering on how to make a road play music.

But for me, this isn't just a musical road.

It's a trip down memory lane.

That's after this. In 2008, I didn't have a TiVo yet, so I still watched commercials, including this one for Honda Civic.

You know, when you're driving along the road and you go

off to the side and you hit a rumble strip to wake you up, what if we were able to change those

...