Person

Bruce Springsteen

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Bruce Springsteen on July 19, 1988 at his concert in East Berlin on the cycle track Weissensee.

Can the 1980s Explain 2024?

The yuppies embodied the winning side of America’s deepening economic divide. Bruce Springsteen spoke for those left behind.
Bruce Springsteen performing at the New Haven Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut circa 1977-1978.

Springsteen's U.S.A.

Steven Hyden's new book about Bruce Springsteen's iconic "Born in the U.S.A" album is the product of a lifelong passion for the music of "The Boss."
Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen .
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How the American Suburbs Created Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel

The musical culture of the New York metropolitan area, combined with themes of suburban life, suffuse the legends' music.
Bruce Springsteen performing live onstage during the Born In the U.S.A. tour.

Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. Captured Two Sides of Reagan’s America

Springsteen's albums offer a tragic-romantic view of the working class in Reagan-era America.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform in 2016 in D.C.
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Springsteen’s Early Struggles Reveal How the Music Industry Has Changed

The album was once king. Now it’s the live show.
Scrapbook style image of Bruce Springsteen, washed in red tones, playing guitar in front of a black-and-white background of an empty landscape

Forty Years of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’

Decades after its release, the haunted highways and haunted characters of the Boss’s largely acoustic masterpiece still haunt the American psyche.
Taylor Swift's Instagram post endorsing Kamala Harris. Swift is holding a cat and facing the camera, dressed in black.

Taylor Swift and the History of the Celebrity Endorsement

Do pop culture interventions in presidential elections make a difference?
Bruce Springsteen.

Berlin’s Cold War of Rock

Did music really bring down the Wall?
Illustration of a man typing on his laptop on a rollercoaster ride.

Work Sucks. What Could Salvage It?

New books examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it.
Billie Holiday singing in a recording studio.

Decades After Billie Holiday’s Death, ‘Strange Fruit’ is Still a Searing Testament to Injustice

Christian and Jewish themes influenced the world of art around one of jazz’s greatest singers.
Google's word occurences tool shows the word "teenager" appear around 1940, with an exponential increase in occurences up through the 2000s.

Teenagers Didn't Always Exist

So where were those angsty kids?
Corporate executives sitting on musicians

Ticketmaster’s Dark History

A 40-year saga of kickbacks, threats, political maneuvering, and the humiliation of Pearl Jam.
Woody Guthrie playing his guitar

This Anthem Was Made For You and Me?

A breakdown of how Woody Guthrie's hit song "This Land" has evolved over time.
Guthrie Guitar Kills Fascists
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Woody Guthrie's Communism and "This Land Is Your Land"

Was he or wasn't he a member of the Communist Party USA?

'I'm Feeling Bad About America'

The sick history of the U.S. campaign song.

Evangelical Fear Elected Trump

The history of evangelicalism in America is shot through with fear—but it also contains an alternative.

Acquitting Elvis of Cultural Appropriation

His groundbreaking rock-n-roll was neither 'thievery' nor 'derivative blackness.'

The Monitor: The Punk Album that Predicted Our Politics

How Titus Andronicus drew on Civil War lore to frame contemporary social divides.

Prince's Epic 'Purple Rain' Tour: An Oral History

Members of the Revolution look back on Prince's massive, awe-inspiring 'Purple Rain' tour in our exclusive oral history.

How Rock and Roll Became White

And how the Rolling Stones, a band in love with black music, helped lead the way to rock’s segregated future.