Springsteen Fandom
"A Lifetime Conversation"
1st Edition
Published on 28. May 2026
160 pages
979-8-7651-4102-1 (ISBN)
Description
Springsteen Fandom: "A Lifetime Conversation" explores the experience of the Bruce Springsteen musical fandom as a mutual exchange between artist and audience.
Choosing significant stops of the Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour as a narrative guideline, the book presents a thorough analysis of Springsteen's album conceptions, song lyrics, show rituals, and interviews. Based on a discussion of the ever-growing Springsteen scholarship, Pethes introduces artist-fan-communication as a notion that is not based on mere illusions but rather on actual emotions and practices.
For over 50 years, Bruce Springsteen has been a rock star with whom fans entertain a highly personal relationship. This is not only due to Springsteen's charismatic stage persona but also to the aesthetic conception of his music that the book explores based on Springsteen's own description of the relationship to his fans as a "lifetime conversation."
Choosing significant stops of the Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour as a narrative guideline, the book presents a thorough analysis of Springsteen's album conceptions, song lyrics, show rituals, and interviews. Based on a discussion of the ever-growing Springsteen scholarship, Pethes introduces artist-fan-communication as a notion that is not based on mere illusions but rather on actual emotions and practices.
For over 50 years, Bruce Springsteen has been a rock star with whom fans entertain a highly personal relationship. This is not only due to Springsteen's charismatic stage persona but also to the aesthetic conception of his music that the book explores based on Springsteen's own description of the relationship to his fans as a "lifetime conversation."
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
ISBN-13
979-8-7651-4102-1 (9798765141021)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2026
Bloomsbury Academic
€68.50
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Nicolas Pethes is Professor of German Literature at the University of Cologne, Germany. His previous employments include visiting professorships at Stanford University, USA, as well as appointments at the Universities of Hagen and Bochum, Germany. He completed his dissertation on the poetics of memory in the works of Walter Benjamin in 1999 and has since published on the media history of literature, the interrelations between literature and science, critical discourse on new media technologies, and popular culture.
Content
1. "A means of communication": Making Connections
2. "Those who've come before": Connecting Traditions
3. "They're in the show": Addressing Audiences
4. "A tale begins": Telling Stories
5. "Who are we and where is home?" Building Communities
6. "It's going to matter to somebody": Shaping Biographies
7. "They're here": Summoning Ghosts
Bibliography
Index
2. "Those who've come before": Connecting Traditions
3. "They're in the show": Addressing Audiences
4. "A tale begins": Telling Stories
5. "Who are we and where is home?" Building Communities
6. "It's going to matter to somebody": Shaping Biographies
7. "They're here": Summoning Ghosts
Bibliography
Index
