Bruce Springsteen “Born in the U.S.A” album cover
Bruce Springsteen album "Born in the USA" is written in a heartland rock style and it is not only an entertaining music but has social purpose. Songs are touching and defending a rural and blue- collar values. In the 70's and 80's, Bruce Springsteen’s music spoke to the masses, but it was particularly targeted to the working class; If the American Dream could be reached by working hard and watching all of your dreams comes true, Springsteen showed that, people who spend their lives in the pursuit of happiness, but never quite get there. The cover of the album “born in the U.S.A” - a close-up of a rear Springsteen in front of an American flag, became one of the most recognizable images in American popular culture and it represents the everyday American.
Exploring the image and its meanings, we can see the connection of the two main images: flag and body, which relates to the concept of masculinity, patriotism. The cover of the album captures what this album is about. If the title didn't already reveal it, this is an album about an American man. The color scheme is red, white and blue. The background features the stripes of the American flag. In the foreground is Bruce in the all-American uniform: blue jeans, a white tee shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a worn-down red baseball cap hanging out of his back pocket.
The image on the cover of the album represents a working American man from any place. The flag on the background gives a patriotic theme. The head of the singer is cropped out, he is standing showing his back. The identity of the man is not so important because it can be working class man from rural or city at the end of the working day, the man who is ready to contribute to his country by hard work.
Born In The U.S.A. is Bruce Springsteen's most popular album. In Springsteen’s own words, the song "Born in the U.S.A." is about "a working-class man" in the middle of spiritual crisis, in which man is left lost. It's like he has nothing left to tie him into society anymore. He's isolated from the government. Isolated from his family...to the point where nothing makes sense." ("Born in the U.S.A." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia)
So the cover of the album became one of the iconic images of the 1980s. By his album the songwriter and the singer expresses the struggling man for whom the American dream is no longer reachable. Springsteen makes a point on injustice in the American society in the 1980s.