Bruce Springsteen Accomplishments

Roots music is defined as American traditional music made up of early blues, country, folk, and rock influences. Revival of roots became an homage to the artists who defined this early art form and popularized it for contemporary music today. In the sixties, the rise of rock n roll, folk revival, and counter culture was sweeping the nation. Music was experimental, and popularity of genres were rapidly changing as one young man was making his start in the music scene. That young man was Bruce Springsteen. With a career that spans though some of the most culturally changing decade, he culminated a dedicated fan base over the years with groundbreaking records. Springsteen has become the epitome of patriotism, by using combined rooted traditions
of blues, Folk and Country into a contemporary sound with poetic lyrics of the everyday working people that defines what it means to be roots music. Springsteen was raised Roman Catholic and went to St.
Rose Lima Catholic School. His religion influenced many aspects of his music as it “…reflects Catholic ethos and traditional Irish-catholic hymns” (Marsh). As a youth, he felt uncomfortable in a social environment that when he transferred to public high school he isolated himself from others. He even skipped his own high school graduation because he felt like a “…loner who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar” (Hilburn). Which is exactly what he did. In 1964, was when Springsteen first saw Elvis Presley appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show he became hooked on the sounds of rock n roll. Realizing this fascination, his mother took out a loan to buy the sixteen-year-old a Kent guitar. This sparked Springsteen to pursue his dreams of music. His first gig began at a trailer park on New Jersey Route 34 where he met Marion Vinyard. Vinyard supported young and upcoming bands during this time and upon hearing Springsteen perform she knew that he was going to make it big (Goldstein). It was at this time he joined the trio Earth and became known as “The Boss” because he became the one who took on distributing the pay amongst the bandmates. Although he disliked this name he ended up accepting it as he went on to perform with other groups such as Steel Mill before hitting nationally acclaimed success. Springsteen was even given critical acclaim for being a “most impressive composer” (Elwood). The rising success of Steel Mill,
lead to Springsteen joining several different bands over the years exploring many different music genres due to his prolific song writing ability. This expanded upon Springsteen’s versatility of music styles that leads to diverse genres for every American. Although his roots were in classic rock n roll, Springsteen sought to create unique music styles by blending different American styles. With the formation of the E Street Band, Springsteen dedicated music with a more classic big band ensemble. There was added horn sections and a pianist added to the group. Springsteen utilized RnB and jazz elements with soul and early gospel-like church music. The E Street Band became a major success and highlighted Springsteen’s versatility as an artist and songwriter. He drew upon major influences of Leon Russell, and Van Morrison (Statham). This brought in more roots elements to his sound as well as a different audience to Springsteen’s fan base. He received raving reviews for his prolific songwriting.