Joseph Hunter Byrd (born December 19, 1937) is an American composer, musician and academic. After first becoming known as an experimental composer in New York and Los Angeles in the early and mid-1960s, he became the leader of The United States of America, an innovative but short-lived band that integrated electronic sound and radical political ideas into rock music. In 1968 he recorded the album The American Metaphysical Circus, credited to Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies.