Tanken med detta arbete var att analysera låtar av Bruce Springsteen för att bli bättre på att arrangera musik som honom. För att göra detta valde jag ut 23 av hans låtar och analyserade dem utifrån fem olika arrangeringselement hämtade ur boken The Mixing Engineer's Handbook. Resultatet blev att jag lärde mig mycket om hur man kan arrangera rockmusik och nya sätt att använda instrument. Dock skulle man nog behöva gräva betydligt djupare ner i låtarna för att få ut det där riktiga guldet som är kännetecknet för Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band.

Bruce Springsteen is often referred to a as the blue collar or working man’s poet but how can he represent the working class since he only worked in manual labor for a week of his life? This paper tries to analyse how selected texts between 1973-84 are related to working class litterature and how this is perceived from the perspective of work and the worker. The analysis show that there are no general definitions regarding workingclass that can be used as a model or reference to working class literature. An alternative definition is based on reception and how the texts are read and perceived as working class by the reader. The findings are that Springsteen uses work and the worker in a very limited way in his texts and when he does, work is often something that is required to be able to do something else. It is only in a few cases Springsteen actually describes the work and the workers as for example in “Factory” and “Working on the Highway”.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur man kan analysera och tolka två av Bruce Springsteens låttexter, för att visa på hur lämpliga de kan vara som underlag för att i undervisning beröra de viktiga livs- och identitetsfrågor som nämns i styrdokumenten för högstadiet. Frihet kan anses vara en särskilt viktig livsfråga och därför undersöks skildringen av frihet i låttexterna närmare. Dessutom undersöks hur genus, klass och ålder skildras i relation till makt. Låttexterna som analyseras är ”The River” och ”Land of Hope and Dreams”. Analysen visar att ”The River” skildrar en mörk, nostalgisk bild av hur dystert livet kan bli som konsekvens av ett för tidigt frihetsberövande. Den belyser hur faktorer så som klass, ålder, kön och etnicitet samverkar och tillsammans påverkar människors livsöden, samt hur de livsödena i sin tur hör ihop med frihetsbegreppet. I ”Land of Hope and Dreams” skildras istället en ljusare, mer positiv och hoppfull bild av Amerika, livet, himlen eller vad man än väljer att tolka låten som en symbol för. Låten skildrar en framtidstro, optimism och tanke om solidaritet, medmänsklighet och jämställdhet som alla lärare borde sträva efter att förse sina elever med. I ”Land of Hope and Dreams” skildras de fördelar som frihet innebär på ett positivt sätt, medan de nackdelar som en brist på frihet innebär skildras på ett mer negativt sätt i ”The River”. Utifrån analysen av de båda låttexterna kan man dra slutsatsen att de visar hur frihet är av ytterst stor betydelse för samhället i stort och människan som enskild individ, samt att de även berör många andra viktiga livs- och identitetsfrågor, vilket gör dem användbara i undervisningssituationer. / This essay aims to examine and show how two of Bruce Springsteen’s songs could be analyzed and how useful they could be in teaching situations, to touch upon some of the important questions that are mentioned in the curriculum. The main focus of the analysis in the essay is questions regarding life and identity. Freedom could be considered an especially important question and the depiction of the concept is therefore analyzed closely. Furthermore, the depictions of gender, class and age are analyzed in relation to power. The songs that are analyzed are “The River” and “Land of Hope and Dreams”. The analysis shows that “The River” depicts a nostalgic image of how dark life can become as a consequence of loosing freedom at an early stage in life. It illustrates how concepts such as class, gender and ethnicity affect the destiny of life, as well as how that destiny is affected by the concept of freedom. “Land of Hope and Dreams” depicts a more positive and hopeful image of America, life, heaven or whatever one chooses to interpret the song as a symbol for. The song depicts a belief in the future, optimism and idea about solidarity and equality that all teachers should aim to pass on to their students. “Land of Hope and Dreams” depicts the advantages of freedom in a positive way, while the disadvantages of freedom are depicted in a more negative way in “The River”. Based on the analysis, one can conclude that the songs illustrate how freedom is of outmost importance to society and to individuals, and that they touch upon many other important questions about life and identity, which makes them appropriate to use in teaching situations.

Ce travail constitue une réflexion sur la chanson contestataire contemporaine aux États-Unis à travers les chansons et l’engagement politique et social de Bruce Springsteen. Nous défendons la thèse que Springsteen renouvelle le genre de la protest song en s’adaptant à l’époque contemporaine. Pour ce faire, le chanteur adopte quatre stratégies artistiques. Elles consistent à chanter sur les gens ordinaires et leur quotidien, aborder le désenchantement et le désespoir des plus exclus, composer des chansons qui remplissent une fonction cathartique en ayant recours à l’imitation et enfin à militer dans la sphère politique et sociale en soutenant des candidats lors des élections présidentielles américaines tout en offrant des dons aux organisations caritatives qui aident les plus démunis. La thèse démontre que Springsteen arrive à se hisser au sommet du classement des meilleures ventes aux États-Unis et à travers le monde grâce à ces stratégies. Elles lui ont permis de mobiliser un public et d’avoir des millions de fans. Nous proposons d’appeler les chansons engagées de Springsteen des chansons méditatives (reflective songs). La chanson méditative de Springsteen est, sans doute, l’outil culturel de contestation le plus adapté à l’époque contemporaine où il est difficile pour un artiste engagé de protester efficacement du fait de la marchandisation de l’acte même de sa contestation. Il se peut que la reflective song de Bruce Springsteen ne change pas le monde, mais elle peut en revanche permettre aux gens de croire en un monde meilleur et donc de les dissuader de se révolter. / This work is a study of contemporary protest song in the USA through the songs and social and political activism of Bruce Springsteen. It contends that Springsteen has been able to reexamine American protest songs and frame a new genre under the umbrella of rock music by adapting his music to the social and political context of contemporary America. The thesis that I defend shows that the reason behind the commercial success of Springsteen can be explained by the fact that he has adopted several artistic strategies which have brought him an audience composed of dedicated fans who admire him. I argue that Springsteen adopts four main strategies: firstly, singing about ordinary people and reporting their daily hardships; secondly, composing somber songs that deal with the despair of blue collars and marginalized Americans; thirdly, adopting mimesis (imitation) which has a cathartic effect on Springsteen’s audience; and finally, getting involved in social and political activism. The thesis contends that Springsteen is among the top selling rock singers in the USA and several other countries thanks to these four strategies. Springsteen has reinvented protest song as a genre and has become a reference in a world where everything is co-opted including the very act of rebellion. I, therefore, suggest a new term, reflective songs, to describe the songs of Bruce Springsteen when they reflect on the condition of the socially excluded instead of protesting pointlessly. Springsteen’s reflective song is undoubtedly the most relevant artistic medium to shed light on the most deprived people of contemporary America. Perhaps, the reflective song of Bruce Springsteen will not change the world, but at least it gives people a reason to hope for a better future.

"Spark Gap" is an invisible electrical force made visible in spaces between things. This usually describes the space of air between two conductors; a non-conductive gap in an otherwise complete electric circuit, across which a quick luminous disruptive electrical discharge occurs. This interstitial space is the distance between two ideas, arced with a running leap. The arc can also be the difference between two things, a gap that becomes apparent only when the two are held in close proximity. In my thesis exhibition, "Spark Gap," a sea urchin shaped orb sits atop a tower of ladders. The orb is broken into five sections and reassembled, each fault line occurring along the perfect zigzag line of its cellular structure. On the floor, there is a linen shag rug, marked as if struck by lightning. This exhibition is named for an interstitial charge, arcing across distance or difference. But this charge is also found in intersections and similarities. Imagine the friction created by rubbing together the circles of a Venn diagram: the overlapping section would begin to spark. It is in these gaps and overlaps that I find the impetus for my work.

I uppsatsen behandlas omslagsbilderna till Bruce Springsteens Born In The U.S.A samt singelversionen av titelspåret utifrån teorier kring nationellt mytskapande, genus och skivomslagskonst. I uppsatsen undersöks hur och i vilket syfte en artist etablerar en image samt hur denna image kan tolkas i flera olika kontexter. Här visas genom semiotisk bildanalys på hur omslagsbilderna driver en aktiv kritisk retorik mot ett politiskt system. Vidare visas på populärkulturens möjligheter att med mytologiserad symbolik och bildspråk aktivt opponera sig mot vedertagna konventioner och sociopolitisk verklighet. Den mytologiska retorikens inneboende tvetydighet och förfogandet däröver lyfts fram, liksom hur en artist genom skivomslagsbilden kan formulera sin identitet för att aktualisera och utmana sociala och politiska konventioner och trender.

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From the claims of punk rocker GG Allin aiming to shed his own blood for Rock ‘n’ Roll to the religiously tinted narratives of Bruce Springsteen we come to find artists using religious references to color their artistic medium. A question arises: Could these utterances and narratives show a deeper meaning behind Rock ‘n’ Roll such that it can give individuals a way to obtain religious experience? This thesis aims at arguing for the ability of Rock ‘n’ Roll as having a way to incite feelings of religious experience and communitas. Through the usage of auto-ethnography coupled with subsidiary sources from academic to pop culture writers this thesis will investigate if such a creative form helps to enable individuals to experience transcendence and feelings of community while immersed in Rock ‘n’ Roll.

From the claims of punk rocker GG Allin aiming to shed his own blood for Rock ‘n’ Roll to the religiously tinted narratives of Bruce Springsteen we come to find artists using religious references to color their artistic medium. A question arises: Could these utterances and narratives show a deeper meaning behind Rock ‘n’ Roll such that it can give individuals a way to obtain religious experience? This thesis aims at arguing for the ability of Rock ‘n’ Roll as having a way to incite feelings of religious experience and communitas. Through the usage of auto-ethnography coupled with subsidiary sources from academic to pop culture writers this thesis will investigate if such a creative form helps to enable individuals to experience transcendence and feelings of community while immersed in Rock ‘n’ Roll.

No description available.