In 1970, National Guard troops killed four protesters at Kent State University. In 2026, federal agents killed two Minneapolis protesters. Public reaction to the deaths was significantly different.
Articles on Bruce Springsteen
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Bruce Springsteen wrote and recorded ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ within days of Alex Pretti’s killing, continuing a long tradition of songs as protest against violence and repression.
Musicians are giving voice to the urgency of Minneapolis. America has a long history of political protest in song.
The singer’s song about the killings in Minneapolis translates private loss into a collective experience rapidly shared through social media.
It’s no real surprise that the Jersey legend has now been given the biopic treatment.
Fender grew up in a disintegrating family in a disintegrating former industrial region, and has written about collective suffering with great skill and passion.
Springsteen initially hated the album so much that he tossed a test pressing into a pool. But its operatic tracks about freedom and fate, triumph and tragedy, continue to resonate today.
Voters may shake it off when celebrities endorse presidential candidates – but sometimes it makes the politicians look like they were born to run.
For decades, presidents and presidential aspirants have tried (with varying degrees of success) to use music and musicians to connect with voters.
In 1984, the album was atop the charts, and Ronald Reagan, running for reelection, told a New Jersey audience that he and the Boss shared the same American dream. Springsteen vehemently disagreed.
This strategy to get the highest prices the markets will bear can lead to problems, as fans of Taylor Swift know all too well.
Clicking ‘random’ on album tracks does the artist a disservice. It can also mean the listener is missing out, too.
Advertisers forked over $5.5 million for a mere 30 seconds of air time during the Super Bowl. Here’s Twitter’s verdict on which brands got social media bang for their bucks.
Bruce Springsteen is The Boss, Aristotle is The Philosopher. And they have a great deal in common, if you know where to look.
With stigma about mental illness still pervasive, The Boss’ frank admission helps shatter some of the most common stereotypes about depression.
The golden days of the 1960s protest song may be past, but music is still used across the world as a vehicle to voice political views. More than a sideshow, it can be a form of mobilisation and an expression of ‘soft power’.
A number of my friends have a fervour for Bruce Springsteen I have never been able to understand. I have always thought of his work as prosaic and literal. His songs teeter on the edge of despair at the…
Wayne Swan’s deeply felt and widely pilloried use of the music of Bruce Springsteen as some kind of political motivation begs some interesting questions. On the one hand it has those of us who remember…
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Musician, lecturer, Western Sydney University
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Co-director of The J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, Adelaide University
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Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music, University of Minnesota
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Emeritus Professor of Politics, School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies, University of East Anglia
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Phd Student in Advertising, University of Tennessee
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Professor of Organization and Business Ethics, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Assistant Professor of Operations, University of Colorado Boulder
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Associate Professor of Music Business and Entrepreneurship, University of Florida
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Professor and Knight Center Chair in Media & Religion, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
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Senior Lecturer in US History, College of Human Sciences and Culture, Flinders University
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Reader in Music, Politics and Society, Newcastle University
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Professor of Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University
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Professor of Appalachian Studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies, East Tennessee State University
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Adjunct Professor, School of Humanities, Adelaide University
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Associate Professor of Political Science, Park University