Springsteen, Bruce

1949–

American Rock Singer and Songwriter

Bruce Springsteen's work reflects the impact of social and cultural change on masculinity in America during the late twentieth century. His upbringing in the manufacturing town of Freehold, New Jersey, exposed him to the conservative, patriarchal ethos of a white working-class ethnic community, but his early fondness for rock and roll in the 1950s and the “British Invasion” of the 1960s eventually transformed his view of social and gender relations.

Early in his career, Springsteen relied on the constructions of masculinity prevalent in working-class environments. His early songs feature men resolved to flee small towns “full of losers” (as in “Thunder Road” [Born to Run, 1975]), as well as the more passive attitude of the “little girls” who may or may not ...