There is something unforgettable about the smooth rasp of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic voice. It is the ultimate paradox. How can something rough be calming at the same time? Bruce Springsteen’s songs have a nostalgic hometown charm. It may be the energy and sincerity he puts into every live performance. Or maybe it is just his beautiful biceps strumming hard on the electric guitar. In the 1980’s Bruce “The Boss” made his mark in American rock and roll.
His voice is not the only paradoxical theme to his music. On June 4th 1984 Springsteen released his 7th studio album titled Born in the U.S.A. The title track off the album Born in the U.S.A may be one of the most misinterpreted songs in rock n roll history. The audience, including numerous right wing politicians have decoded Bruce’s message entirely wrong. Bruce Springsteen’s song Born in the U.S.A is a song protesting and criticizing America’s treatment of Vietnam War veterans, but for over thirty years has been misconstrued as a patriotic song incasing the American Dream.
Bruce Springsteen was born in Long Branch New Jersey and grew up in Freehold Township. He was known to be a rowdy kid. He wasn’t too popular with his teachers or his parents. Springsteen was ostracized and a bit of an outcast. When he was nine Springsteen saw Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan show. This impacted him enough to buy a guitar and try to play. During his teenage years, tried to figure out if music was his calling. He had a few different bands come together and fall before the infamous E Street Band was created. After playing on the New Jersey bar scene for a few years his, first album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J was released.
Bruce released five more albums before Born in the U.S.A. including an album titled Nebraska that featured songs oozing with lyrics describing the working class man drowning in his failure of the American dream. Springsteen shattered rock music in 1984 with the release of Born in the U.S.A., which included 7 singles that remained in the billboard top ten for over two years breaking a musical record. The Boss had the whole world listening but did they really hear him?
It would be a bold statement to call Bruce Springsteen a Marxist, and he would most likely not categorize himself as one. It is no secret that he is a bleeding liberal who loves to write about what he knows and believes in. While the title Marxist is a bit audacious, one would be a fool to say that his criticism of the big powers in the US do not correlate with some of the Marxist perspective. “There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism” (Springsteen, 2010).
This quote can combat any person who claims that he is the depiction of the perfect all American boy living the “American Dream”. Springsteen’s lyrics radiate with his political opinions and doubt in the American government and “ruling” class. Brian L. Ott and Robert L. Mack quote in the book Critical Media Studies that, “Marxism is rooted in the idea that society is the history of class struggles”. Springsteen made his career writing about the struggles of the working class of America and this quote captures that his music was and still is a voice for an entire branch of American society.
In 1967 Bruce Springsteen was drafted into the military to be sent to Vietnam. Springsteen failed his physical exam due to numerous reasons including a brain concussion when he was 17 and filling out the forms in a manner that would prevent the army from accepting him. He is an alleged draft-dodger and with the release of Born in the U.S.A. the world found out why. The song is a protest of the Vietnam War. Born in the U.S.A. is a seamless example of the misconnection that can occur in the encoding and decoding process that Stuart Hall writes about in his essay.
Bruce Springsteen’s intention while creating this song was not to glamourize the American lifestyle and promote patriotism. The first step of Hall’s encoding and decoding process is the production of the media. Springsteen’s intended meaning for the production of this song is found in the lyrics of the verses. For example the lyric, “Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand, sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man.” This lyric immediately sets up the tone of the song. He says that this man got into a small struggle in his town so the government’s reaction was to give him a gun and to send him to kill the “yellow man”. He made the government appear to have drafted the man as a way to get rid of him. The use of the prejudice term “yellow man” could also be perceived as a dig at America in displaying the country’s lighthearted use of derogatory names.
Another example of Springsteen’s criticism of America during the time of the Vietnam war roots in the lyrics, “Had a brother at Khe Sahn, fighting off the Viet Cong. They're still there, he's all gone. He had a woman he loved in Saigon, I got a picture of him in her arms now.” Springsteen’s message in this lyric brings out the human touch of the war. War is political, violent, destructive, hateful, hostile, and touching? He writes from a new perspective with different lenses compared to the rest of the world. The man’s friend from war who was supposed to be killing the Vietnamese Army was killed in combat.
This man was killed doing the noblest thing a man can do, but he argues: what was the point? The “Viet Cong” are still there and he is dead. This idea is completely anti-war. Springsteen is offering the question, what are we really dying for? Saigon was a large city in Vietnam during the time of the war. The man’s “war brother” was in love with a Vietnamese woman, which totally breaks the barrier of the hatred of the war. Springsteen is pairing the enemies in the song and writing about the heartbreak of him dying and losing his lover. He is showing the importance of love over the war.
The most important example of Springsteen’s antiwar message is in the lyrics that describe the treatment of the Vietnam War veteran after he returns home from war. “Come back home to the refinery, Hiring man says "son if it was up to me". Went down to see my V.A. man, He said "son don't you understand now."These lyrics are a statement about the disrespect Vietnam War veterans faced upon their return home from war. Springsteen makes a point to say that these two men that did not offer the veteran a job, made excuses, and did not even admit to their decision. The lyric also states that one of the hiring men was from his town. After risking their lives in a war that many did not agree with, the veterans returned home unable to get a job. They were outsiders in society after the war and many of them had nowhere to go. “I'm ten years burning down the road, nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go.” This lyric captures the uncertainty and lack of a home these men came back too. Springsteen is attacking anyone in America who contributed to the disrespect of the veterans.
All of these examples can closely coincide with the Marxists perspective of counterculture and breaking down the hegemony of the ruling class. Springsteen writes for the working class people. The Marxists ideology is made up of the idea that the working class or the “production” determines what the superstructure will do. At the time of the Vietnam War this ideology was anything but true. The draft alone was a major way that the superstructure eluded its power on the people. The draft dodgers were a counterculture.
Springsteen took his personal politics and turned them into a musical protest that could be a voice for all the disrespected veterans and any person who disagreed with the war. He started his own antiwar message, which added to Springsteen’s numerous songs and albums that have become their own counterculture for the working class men and women of America. In Springsteen’s official video for his song Born to Run he opens the video with the quote, “Remember in the end nobody wins, unless everyone wins.” This quote shows the connection between Springsteen’s song and the Marxist perspective. Before there is any kind of ruling superstructure the people have to be treated equally. The people should have say in what the ruling class decides to do.
This song was released in 1984, which could have impacted the circulation of the song and album. Circulation is the second step of Hall’s theory. It studies how the media is arrived. 1984 was about 11 years after the Vietnam War has ended. This further explains the lyric “I’m ten years burning down the road” Springsteen was still being effected by the injustice of the war as many other antiwar protesters were. Unfortunately, that was not necessarily the mindset of the general public. If this song had been released a few years earlier the audience may have analyzed the lyrics more critically in the same format as I have done.
The chorus of Born in the U.S.A was all that most people heard clearly and remembered. People did not hear it as an antiwar plea. Born in the U.S.A is a protest but was released after the wave of antiwar songs. Therefore, much of the audience did not hear the song in the right context. This is how the circulation of the song may have allowed the use or interpretation of the song to be lost and to change. Bruce was writing and singing this song in the context of wartime. While the message was still potent to him, it was lost by much of the audience.
“I don't write demographically. I don't write a song to reach these people or those people” (Springsteen, 2013). What Springsteen is saying is that he has not sold out. Many rock stars and pop stars start targeting specific groups of people in order to make an audience and remain relevant. Springsteen writes about the struggle of the middle class, the majority of people. He does not need to cater to anyone. People flock to his songs as they embody what they stand for. Also, his songs leave the listener with a feel good mentality. Even if the message is harsh or sad, his melody captures the listener and can take them to a better place. It is easier to make change in numbers. His songs allow his fans to feel empowered by themselves and their own potential. Unfortunately, the feel good melody can also lose some of the importance and anger of the message.
Another reason behind the missed circulation in the song Born in the U.S.A is the way Springsteen sings the lyrics. The singer naturally has a rough and raspy voice. During live performances he tends change the key of his most popular songs and rearrange the notes. When Springsteen sings Born in the U.S.A live he tends to mumble the verses together. He grabs a lot of grittiness in the verses that makes some of the words harder to make out. The chorus, on the other hand, only has one real message. It continues to repeat “Born in the U.S.A. I was Born in the U.S.A now”. This could be a major reason why the message of the song is mistaken. The chorus of the song is clear and repeated multiple times.
By the time Born in the U.S.A was released in the US Bruce Springsteen was already a household name. Rolling Stone titled him “The Voice of a Decade” (Gilmore, 1990). What did this mean for the influence of his message? Use is the third step of Hall’s theory and may be the most important stage. The use stage is the stage of interpretation. While Bruce Springsteen’s overall appearance is quite simplistic, his lyrics are not. He writes all of his songs and they are all very complex. Any person who stopped and looked at the lyrics to Born in the U.S.A would understand why this is not about proudly stating that one was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A is constantly used to celebrate America. The song plays at Forth of July barbeques, on the beach, and at political events with people all proudly stating they were born in the U.S.A. They are Americans, born free and proud. The melody is catchy and the chorus is five lines that most Americans know or can catch on to after one or two words.
The chorus of the song is meant to be ironic. After breaking down the verses it is made apparent that this song is not a chant of patriotism. The song has evolved into having two very different meanings. Springsteen wrote it as a sad, ironic antiwar anthem, but that is not what most fans heard. The chorus overpowers the whole song. Sadly, it is also the part of the song that all fans know. Many people completely miss the irony of the song. The fans hear “Born in the U.S.A, I was born in the U.S.A” as a pro America mantra.
The fans have created this idea of pronouncing their patriotism on a beach somewhere in Jersey drinking a cold beer on July 4th. (People from New Jersey are not anymore unintelligent than people from other places but when you think of “The Boss” you think of Jersey.) "In my songs, the spiritual part, the hope part, is in the choruses. The blues, your daily realities, are in the details of the verses.” (Springsteen, 2005). In this quote the singer himself is agreeing that the “struggles” and the real statement of his songs are masked in the verses. The misinterpretation of this song does not classify unintelligence at all. Rather it proves the significance of encoding and decoding. Something as insignificant as an overpowering chorus, an upbeat melody, an unclear enunciation, or the context in which a song is released can completely change the meaning of a song.
Springsteen’s message of the chorus is rooted in the verses. The antiwar verses come down pretty hard on the American government. The lines, “Born in the U.S.A, I was born in the U.S.A” is basically stating how terrible it is to be born in the U.S.A. The song is an advertisement showing how horrendous it is to be a Vietnam soldier. Any person that receives the disrespect Springsteen wrote about would not be proud to be born in the U.S.A.
The misinterpretation did not stop with the fans. Many political leaders have used the song to express feelings of patriotism as well. The most iconic use of the song was in 1984 in Hamilton, New Jersey when Ronald Reagan used Springsteen’s messages in a campaign speech. His campaign speech is a direct example of how reproduction of the original media can have a huge impact on the audience’s interpretation.
Reproduction is the fourth step of Hall’s theory. The stage of reproduction explains the behavioral reproduction of the media after audience interpretation. In the year of 1984 ex-president Ronald Reagan was campaigning for his second term in presidency. During this campaign the president decided to focus his attention on the independents and Americans who did not support Reagan in order to further his reach. A main point in Reagan’s campaign was to excite the working class people and give them reason to want to vote. During a small hometown speech in Hamilton, NJ Reagan said, “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire—New Jersey’s own, Bruce Springsteen” (Reagan, 1984).
He put this blurb into his speech just three months after the Born in the U.S.A record had been released. Politically it was an excellent move on his campaign adviser’s part. The ode to New Jersey’s own reject who became a success made people excited and want to listen. Sadly, Reagan’s people did not listen to Springsteen’s music at all. The things that he wrote about on this album and the previous album Nebraska were extremely anti-American government. Most likely the ex-president never even heard the song before speaking blindly on “The boss’s” behalf. This strategy probably rallied thousands of people into voting for an empty dream. The reproduction of Springsteen’s name by ex-president Reagan further instilled the idea of the song being a song of patriotism. Reagan even went as far as asking Springsteen’s management to use Born in the U.S.A. as a campaign song.
Shortly after, during a concert Springsteen mentioned the President as well. "Well, I heard that the President was mentioning my name in his speech the other day, and I got to wondering what his favorite album of mine must've been. I don't think it was the 'Nebraska' album; I don't think he's been listening to this one" (Springsteen, 1984). The singer knew that he had been used to shamelessly promote Reagan’s campaign. Unfortunately, it was never made clear whether Reagan’s party was truly confused by the meaning of the song or if they intended to play off of the confusion and further delay the real meaning. Springsteen’s management also politely declined from using Born in the U.S.A as Reagan’s official campaign song. The further reproduction of the song by ex-president Ronald Reagan could have broke the message even more and changed the idea of Springsteen’s politics.
Later in the year, Springsteen did an interview with Rolling stone in which he released some personal opinion regarding the ex-president Ronald Reagan. He said, “He has a very mythical presidency. I don't know if he's a bad man. But I think there's a large group of people in this country whose dreams don't mean that much to him, that just get indiscriminately swept aside” (Springsteen, 1984). Springsteen completely overthrew his mentioning by the president in releasing this statement. When Reagan mentioned Springsteen he was talking about the American dream, and the singer is directly rebutting his point by saying he doesn’t care about the dreams of a huge majority of citizens.
Reagan was not the only political figure who falsely used Springsteen’s title track. For over thirty years now it has become an anthem of patriotism used by politician’s to spark interest and instill nationalism in their campaign. More recently, in 2000, republican candidate Pat Buchanan used the opening chords as his introduction. The reproduction of this song through interpretation has not only occurred in the audience but also the ruling class. Coming from a Marxist perspective, Springsteen got the attention of the ruling superstructure. The superstructure in this case has taken the means of production and used it in a way to benefit their own message. Springsteen duped the ruling class with his irony. Sadly, the misinterpretation has detrimentally hurt the politics of the song. He was not able to gain the Marxist ideal with Born in the U.S.A because the message was immediately lost after production. If people looked at the verses they would immediately understand the message. While there is a small majority of audience members who have, the masses have mistaken this protest for patriotism.
To look at the opposing side of Springsteen’s politics, many people argue that he himself is not a struggling working class man. The singer has addressed this idea in numerous articles by saying that he writes from experience. He came from humble beginnings. He has also been quoted saying that if it wasn’t for music he doesn’t know where he would be. Bruce is a voice for the people who do not have one. He is able to represent an entire group of people through his music. Not only does his music promote solidarity, it also promotes political activism. There is a quote from a famous Jewish leader that states, “If not me, who?” (Hillel the Elder). This quote has been used in many famous speeches including ones by John Kennedy and Emma Watson because it captures the mentality of a leader who has the ability to speak for his people. Bruce Springsteen is a representative for the working class man who actively fights for the rights he believes in.
There is a lot of controversy and politics surrounding the song Born in the U.S.A. More than thirty years after it’s release there is a deep misconception behind what the meaning of the song really is. Alternatively, this miscommunication of the encoding and decoding process forced Bruce Springsteen to become a political music icon. The irony of the song has been lost by much of the audience. Not only did the circulation and usage by the audience affect the meaning, the antiwar protest was also miscommunicated by political leaders with extensive influence. Springsteen intended for the song to be a demonstration of the terrors of war and of the disrespect that Vietnam War veterans experienced upon return from the war. The top charting song Born in The U.S.A has been misconstrued as a song pledging American patriotism for over thirty years while it is actually an antiwar protest anthem.
