bobbyjean replied to your post:
i was thinking that bruce springsteen was my...
This might sound stupit but whys bitusa problematic ? I thought it was based on a questioning, critical patriotism ?
it isnt REALLY....that is part of the problem, it is just so misunderstood. and like i get that bruce often buries some of his most challenging subjects beneath the surface of the songs but that album is just....ugh idk, there isnt really anything wrong with it. i understand its purpose in his catalogue and as a singular album, i just feel like it is an exception that is taken as the rule. it is his most famous album and therefore influences the way a majority of people see bruce and his music and the message of it isn’t worn on the surface, it gives people an impression of him that i feel is disingenuous when taken out of the context of the album. and it falls into some 80s cliches while for me most of his other albums are suspended out of the time they were made, bc the complexity of his references, in his other albums it seems like he wasnt trying to make something that was defined by the time it was made in, but BITUSA is very much defined by its time. and while the writing on the album is solid, and some of it challenging, i don’t feel like it is as confrontational about it. when i look at it in context with his other 80s albums i find it disappointing in that it doesn’t challenge the listener. the river, nebraska, and tunnel of love are all albums that have an emotional honesty that is very present and hard to ignore, they are each challenging in their brutal honesty and they are not shy about the things they deal with. while i personally find it hard to misunderstand the song “born it the usa” and find that it is still so misinterpreted baffling, it is not balanced by songs that reinforce that message in more surface ways. on the river, “hungry heart” (a song that i find disturbingly cheerful considering its subject matter), is balanced by “the river” which gives the album its key narrative in the clearest terms. but all the key songs that tell the thematic story of BITUSA hold their truths beneath the surface and hide behind bold titles: “my hometown”, “glory days”, and “no surrender” are equally misunderstood as the title song and are again some of his most well-known songs. they are also so goddamn catchy that it distracts from the message. it frustrates me as someone who sees springsteen as one of the most important critics and truth-tellers of the american experience, that he is so widely seen as this fist-pounding meathead and writer of patriotic anthems, when that image of him, created by a misinterpretation of BITUSA seems to discredit the rest of his hugely important and brutally honest catalogue. it just seems like on his other albums he was unwilling to compromise the message in favor of “hits” and i see him giving into that impulse with BITUSA, and the fact that there are music videos and all that accompanying it just made it even more image-driven.
that being said, no, it isnt REALLY problematic. it is well-written and the songs are solid. springsteen is a great songwriter, always wrote some catchy fucking songs, i don’t mind that there is a playfulness on the album, it is nice that there is, i just wish it wasn’t the album that defined people’s impression of him. he is just so much more complex than that album makes him seem in my mind. born to run will always be his definitive mission statement. that album puts forth the mythology that he would build on or dismantle with every subsequent album. ideally, i would like that album to define him in other people’s minds. which of course is silly and proves that all of this ranting is driven by my own wish that i didnt have to constantly explain why i admire him so deeply, erase BITUSA from peoples minds before they give him a chance. so that experience has made it difficult for me to enjoy BITUSA, and therefore i personally, in my own life, find it problematic.
funnily enough, “dancing in the dark”, the most famous song from that album, is the one i have no problems with, while it is unbelievably catchy, the words start to stick with you and fight their way into your consciousness, but it also doesn’t seem as deceptive as the other songs, the music carries that specific feeling so well. i guess it is bc that song is about a feeling and isnt carrying a message about the american experience....
ANYWAYS i’m sure you didnt actually want an essay-long answer when you wrote your reply and i apologize, i have clearly thought waaaaaaaay too much about it. but springsteen really isn’t very problematic at all, i just wish more people knew that ://///
