Concept
The concept of the album was basically "bring message to the largest possible audience." In the wake of the undeniable success of pop music, with Michael Jackson's Thriller as a model example, Springsteen turned to the adoption of a particularly radio-oriented sound for Born in the U.S.A.. This represented a radical change from the dark, intimate, almost-fully-acoustic Nebraska. In some ways, making commercial music was not strange to Springsteen – he already experienced Top 5 success with the 1980 pop-flavored single "Hungry Heart" and was also responsible for "Blinded by the Light", a song that was covered by Manfred Mann's Earth Band becoming a #1 hit in the United States in 1977. However, the Born in the U.S.A. project represented his first full attempt to dominate the airwaves. Most of the songs from the album surprised both critics and the public, as it showed the E Street Band using synthesizer for the first time.
Rolling Stone faithfully defined the album's spirit in its 1990 issue that called Springsteen "Voice of the Decade": "Like Nebraska, Born in the U.S.A. was about people who come to realize that life turns out harder, more hurtful, more closefisted than they might have expected. But in contrast to Nebraska 's killers and losers, Born in the USA's characters hold back the night as best they can, whether it's by singing, laughing, dancing, yearning, reminiscing or entering into desperate love affairs. There was something celebratory about how these people face their hardships. It's as if Springsteen were saying that life is made to endure and that we all make peace with private suffering and shared sorrow as best we can." The magazine also pointed that "Springsteen and Landau designed the album with contemporary pop styles in mind — which is to say, it was designed with as much meticulous attention to its captivating and lively surfaces as to its deeper and darker meanings."
Despite the dark spirit of Nebraska material, Springsteen noted a certain resemblance between the two records: "If you look at the material, particularly on the first side, it's actually written very much like Nebraska – the characters and the stories, the style of writing – except it's just in the rock-band setting."
Read more about this topic: Born In The U.S.A.
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