Bruce Springsteen and Popular Music

William I. Wolff is an assistant professor of communication studies and digital media at Saint Joseph’s University where he teaches courses on participatory culture, nonprofit communications, and digital storytelling. His work has appeared in Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy; Transformative Works and Cultures; Technical Writing Quarterly and Computers & Composition.

Music examples

Acknowledgments

List of contributors

Introduction: the rhetoric and social consciousness of Bruce Springsteen

William I Wolff

Part 1. Politics, fear, and society

1. Lost in the flood: Bruce Springsteen’s political consciousness and the Vietnam War, 1968–2014

Jonathan D. Cohen

2. "Youngstown": a local band’s rebuke of Springsteen’s representation of a city struggling to define itself after deindustrialization

Sara Gulgas

3. Our Lady of E Street: the Boss’s Virgin, 2002–2014

Karen O’Donnell

4. "This turnpike sure is spooky": Springsteen and the politics of fear

Jason Stonerook

Part 2. Gender and sexual identity

5. American Beauty nomads?: ontological security and masculinized knowledge in uncertain times

Pamela Moss

Dialogues: Springsteen and women

6. The Promised Land: Springsteen’s epic heterosexuality, late capitalism, and prospects for queer life

Nadine Hubbs

7. Is there anybody alive out there? Growing up queer with Bruce

Holly Casio

8. Who is Springsteen to his women fans?

Lorraine Mangione and Donna Luff

Part 3. Toward a rhetoric of Bruce Springsteen

9. When words fail: nonlexical utterances and the rhetoric of voicelessness in the songs of Bruce Springsteen, 1975–1984

Eric Rawson

10. "To stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart": authenticity, community, and folk music in the recent work of Bruce Springsteen

Owen Cantrell

Dialogues: Springsteen, audience, and interpretation

11. "Bring ‘em home!": the rhetorical ecologies of Devils & Dust

Jason Schneider

12. Springsteen’s stage success: the setlist and beyond

Peter Chianca

13. "They don’t just see some person with a guitar": Springsteen and rhetorical identification

Scott Wagar

Index