Bruce Springsteen: Poptimist?

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

From an interview with A.O. Scott in the New York Times that dances around Bruuuuuce's feelings about pop without really saying very much about them:

“Pop is funny. It’s a tease. It’s an important one, but it’s a tease, and therein resides its beauty and its joke.”

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It annoys me when people say things like "yes this is bringing unease to pop" - there's unease in like 70% of pop!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Yeah I can't put my finger on it (because the article is too vague) but they all seem to be using "pop" in a pejorative sense even while embracing it. Except they don't say much of anything about it (aside from a few platitudes, like "pop has hooks! So I am writing hooks!" and the vague stuff of the choice quote I pulled.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I do like the idea of pop-as-tease (something about the importance of denial of pleasure, which goes hand in hand with granting of pleasure). But you'd have to follow this with several other words for it to mean anything.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's pop as an ideal thing (with hooks!) that can be breached and made 'real' by other stuff, and actually I can deal with this coming from Broooce cos his best pop has this really aching sense of idealisation: pop itself is the smalltown girl he wants to escape with and make happy even as he wants to fuck it with his amazing realness, erm I'm heading into anthony easton territory here I think!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as always I'm just curious as to what "pop" (which pop star!) he's referring to that (1) is "easy," (2) is constructing this fantasy world that couldn't possibly exist, (3) is a joke. (Not to say that lots of pop doesn't do this, but not all of it does, so you really need to specify a little.)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well the fantasy world thing reminds me most of his own pop - that amazing bit in "Jungleland" for instance where he's singing so intensely about this completely fabricated romanticised rock'n'roll street world and is just desperately trying to will it into existence even for just that one verse!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

also, steel mill closed down.

also:

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

fuelie heads and a hurst on the floor