Springsteen as history. The cold war trauma and the re-enchantment of rock and roll

This book threads two separate perspectives: one inspired by the psychological interpretation of the effects of the “Blues” on contemporary societies, and another anchored to the current debate among historians about music and international relations. The author uses these two separate threads to investigate the role played by Bruce Springsteen as an American “sound ambassador” outside the US, particularly in Europe; and sheds light on the invisible trauma that affected the Cold War generation. Through the lens of Springsteen’s Neapolitan roots and Italian heritage via his mother’s family, this book examines the diffusion of the Blues during fascist Italy, and goes deep into the impact of Rock and Roll music, from Elvis to Bruce. Since World War II, the US Department of State had used jazz and the Blues as a “sonic weapon” to combat the perception of the US as a racist society. By the Fifties, rock and roll arrived in its raw version in the Mediterranean area through the U.S. soldiers at the Naples-based AFSouth (Allied Forces Southern Europe) Headquarters. Paradoxically, the military use of the Blues, now distilled in rock and roll, represented a double-edged sword which spread the seeds of the dark side of the American way of life among the youth. In the Sixties, with the upheaval of the Vietnam War, the split between the expectations of a more democratic and individualized society and a bipolar geopolitical order of an unexploded atomic war made the frustration of the youth even more unsolvable. From the Seventies to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Bruce Springsteen expressed the peculiar feeling of helplessness of so many people in Western society, offering a transnational Cold War generation a sense of connection. While giving an implicit, alchemical voice to different political identities, his music makes the “Nowhere” recognizable in a geopolitical entity drawn by the Blues. Music during the Cold War illuminated the profound shock of a generation and gave it the chance to shed emotions of fear, guilt, and shame. Springsteen expressed the peculiar feeling of helplessness of so many people in Western society, offering a transnational Cold War generation a sense of connection, providing redemption through the genuine religious experience of Rock and Roll.