Five Bruce Springsteen songs that define his genius
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(Credits: Eric Meola)
Loathe though I am to write an article that ‘The Boss’ himself would probably roll his eyes at so hard they’d fall out of his ears, the genius of Bruce Springsteen is the kind that you’d have to be a pretty staunch contrarian to deny.
Even if his music isn’t to your taste, it would be difficult to deny that the man is a master of his craft. Just as I personally am not a huge fan of one of Springsteen’s idols, Bob Dylan, but can’t deny that the guy is a capital G genius.
Which begs the question, what makes a genius when it comes to pop music? The medium is one of the most subjective in the world of art, which is in and of itself inherently subjective when it comes to questions of quality. Does the chart dominance of Max Martin make him more or less of a pop genius than Lou Reed, and his sweeping influence over the forms pop music has taken since? It’s a complicated question, but for one that I want to put forth a possible answer here.
I think the concept of a genius within pop music has less to do with adhering to one concrete definition of the term and more to do with an analysis of what they’ve done. The Max Martin/Lou Reed examples earlier were something of a feint. Rather than one being more of a genius than the other, both of them achieve that status in their own way. It’s something that Springsteen has also achieved in his way, which is in the sheer scope of his songwriting.
What Bruce Springsteen does better than the vast, vast majority of songwriters in pop music is manage to stamp his own identity on songs that are otherwise completely different. His is a voice both metaphorical and literal that is unmistakable, despite how many different songs he can write to perfection. To illustrate, we’re going to go through five songs that sum up just how versatile a songwriter ‘The Boss’ is.
Five genius Bruce Springsteen songs:
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