Arts: The Boss Celebrates the Wider World of Pop

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Brow Beat The Boss Celebrates the Wider World of Pop By Forrest Wickman Posted Monday, Mar 19, 2012, at 07:34 PM ET Bruce Springsteen might inspire others to privilege rock over the rest of pop, but he does no such thing himself. That's what we learned during his surprising keynote speech from the South by Southwest Music Festival last week. It's worth watching the sweeping 50 minute address in full—Springsteen is insightful, funny, and (perhaps unsurprisingly) not a bad writer—and you can do so via the embed below. While the bulk of his speech focuses on his heroes from folk and rock, Springsteen's opening makes clear that that's only because he's taking some time to tell his particular story, and they're the heroes of the particular genres he works in. He explains that he got class consciousness from The Animals, straightforward storytelling from country music, the importance of live performance from the "still underrated" funk godfather James Brown. (He was also "inspired by the passion in Elvis's pants.") After he plays a few bars of "We Gotta Get Outta This Place" (around 23:05 in the clip above), he reveals, "That's every song I've ever written." (Of course, it's a good song.) Elsewhere he gives a shoutout to Public Enemy and states that his early influences represent only part of the American musical tradition. While many have lamented the way pop music has splintered its way into hundreds of different camps, Springsteen celebrates pluralism. Around 6:20 he rattles off a few dozen different subgenres and minigenres; the only one ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Spitzer: The JOBS Act Would Undo the Most Important Reforms Placed on Wall Street in a Generation Southern Voters Answer the Question They Find Hardest To Understand Mike Daisey Was Nowhere Near Being  Substantially True About Apple in China	Advertisement
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