Born in The U.S.A. - Image and Social Issues

Image and Social Issues

As of 1984, Springsteen had been a well-known star for almost a decade. However, as Larry Rodgers interpreted it, "it was not until he hit the gym to get buffed up and showed off his rear end in Annie Leibovitz’s famous cover photo for Born in the U.S.A. that he became an American pop icon", touching off a wave of Bossmania (as author Chris Smith described it ).

For the album, Springsteen reintroduced himself as a muscular and sexually-charged rocker after his adoption of constant wearing of tight blue jeans, white t-shirts and bandannas, and also intensive physical training that included years of running, weightlifting, and bodybuilding. According to Bryan K. Garman, in his book A Race of Singers – Whitman's Working-Class Hero From Guthrie to Springsteen, this new image helped Springsteen to popularize his persona on a new scale, but also brought him a decisive attachment to political and sociocultural issues, in the times when Ronald Reagan was reviving a patriotic pride by reaffirming the values of prosperity, expansion, and world domination of the United States "within a decidedly masculine framework." As Reagan's combination of masculinity and nationalism shaped a popular culture that "remasculinized" the country's image, Americans found themselves reading and watching about the Vietnam War, trying to come to terms with the lost war and the soldiers who fought it. At the time, the huge popularity of Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" films demonstrated both the public's fascination with the Vietnam veteran and the symbiotic relationship that existed between the Reagan presidency and much of the popular culture of its era. According to the author, Springsteen found himself enmeshed in the ideologies and symbols that Rambo and Reagan represented. In August 1985, the Chicago Tribune, coining a slogan that would soon appear on novelty T-shirts and bumper stickers throughout the country, declared him the Rambo of rock and roll, and a national hero who, like Stallone's character, "only wants America to love him as much as he loves it." According to this editorial, Springsteen reprised "the defiant, good ol' boy, blue-collar skepticism of Merle Haggard."

"I think what's happening now is people want to forget. There was Vietnam, there was Watergate, there was Iran — we were beaten, we were hustled, and then we were humiliated. And I think people got a need to feel good about the country they live in. But what's happening, I think, is that need — which is a good thing — is getting' manipulated and exploited. And you see the Reagan reelection ads on TV — you know: "It's morning in America." And you say, well, it's not morning in Pittsburgh. It's not morning about 125th Street in New York. It's midnight, and, like, there's a bad moon risin'. And that's why when Reagan mentioned my name in New Jersey, I felt it was another manipulation, and I had to disassociate myself from the president's kind words."

At the time, it was a common thought that both Rambo and Springsteen shared the same politics. As Garman puts it, "Stallone and Springsteen addressed questions of national identity, confronted the legacy of Vietnam, and, in some ways, physically resembled each other: they both had dark shoulder-length hair, wore bandannas as part of their costumes, and flaunted their muscular physiques. To be sure, the heroic and sexualized image that Springsteen cultivated was an important component of his popularity and in large part accounted for his appropriation by the Right." He also mentions that Springsteen began also to be characterized by a kind of stage performance that "(on one level) liberates his fans by presenting the possibility of sexual freedom. On another, it reaffirms the power of masculinity." Garman concluded his analysis with the sentence: "Like Reagan and Rambo, the apparently working-class Springsteen was for many American a white hard-bodied hero whose masculinity confirmed the values of patriarchy and patriotism, the work ethic and rugged individualism, and who clearly demarcated the boundaries between men and women, black and white, heterosexual and homosexual."

Much of this hype was produced by the social reactions to the title track, which certainly secured Springsteen's new image as a musical hero, while turning his fame into something complex and troubling. The song was mainly the tale of an American whose birthrights have been paid off with indelible memories of violence and ruin. These thematics, added to Max Weinberg's hard drum beat and Springsteen's furious, passioned vocal performance, caused to many to hear the proclamation "I was born in the U.S.A." as a fierce, nationalistic assertion. Certainly, the song was misinterpreted by many as a patriotic anthem. American conservative columnist George Will, after attending a show, wrote in September 1984 that Springsteen was an exemplar of classic American values. He wrote: "I have not got a clue about Springsteen's politics, if any, but flags get waved at his concerts while he sings songs about hard times. He is no whiner, and the recitation of closed factories and other problems always seems punctuated by a grand, cheerful affirmation: 'Born in the U.S.A.!'"

The 1984 presidential campaign was in full stride at the time, and Will had connections to President Reagan's re-election organization. Will thought that Springsteen might endorse Reagan, and got the notion pushed up to high-level Reagan advisor Michael Deaver's office. Those staffers made inquiries to Springsteen's management which were politely rebuffed. Nevertheless, on September 19, 1984, at a campaign stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan added the following to his usual stump speech:

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about."

The campaign press immediately expressed skepticism that Reagan knew anything about Springsteen, and asked what his favorite Springsteen song was; "Born to Run" was the tardy response from staffers. Johnny Carson then joked on The Tonight Show, "If you believe that, I've got a couple of tickets to the Mondale/Ferraro inaugural ball I'd like to sell you."

Years later Rolling Stone analyzed the situation stating that "clearly, to anybody paying attention, the hard-bitten vision of America that Springsteen sang of in 'Born in the U.S.A.' was a far cry from the much-touted 'new patriotism' of Reagan and many of his fellow conservatives. And yet there was also something damnably brilliant in the way the president sought to attach his purpose to Springsteen's views. It was the art of political syllogism, taken to its most arrogant extreme. Reagan saw himself as a definitional emblem of America; Bruce Springsteen was a singer who, apparently, extolled America in his work; therefore, Springsteen must be exalting Reagan — which would imply that if one valued the music of Springsteen, then one should value (and support) Reagan as well. Reagan was manipulating Springsteen's fame as an affirmation of his own ends."

During a September 21 concert in Pittsburgh, Springsteen responded negatively by introducing his song "Johnny 99", a song about an unemployed auto worker who turns to murder, "The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album must've been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one." A few days after that, presidential challenger Walter Mondale said, "Bruce Springsteen may have been born to run but he wasn't born yesterday," and then claimed to have been endorsed by Springsteen. Springsteen manager Jon Landau denied any such endorsement, and the Mondale campaign issued a correction.

Other songs of the album also found political issues. In 2004, Senator John Kerry (D–Massachusetts) used "No Surrender" as his campaign theme song during his 2004 presidential campaign. Springsteen performed the song at several Kerry rallies during the campaign.