Bruce springstein textual analysis by Poppy

1. Bruce Springstein’s ‘Born in the USA’ album cover features the back
of Springstein against the American flag. He is in jeans and a white t-
shirt and has a red cap tucked in his back pocket. A mid shot is used,
showing Springstein from just below his shoulders to above his knees.
By using this shot, it looks like he could be any other American citizen
as there is nothing that states it is in fact Springstein. By wearing jeans
and a t-shirt he is stripping off his wealth and relating to all the working
class people who come to the USA to find their American Dream. He
could be suggesting although he was ‘Born in the USA’ he is still one
of those people searching. As you can not see his face the consumer is
able to form their own opinions of what Springstein could be doing. He
could be looking up at the flag. Another view could be that because of
his hand placement he is in fact urinating on the flag. He is in a relaxed
but confident stance with his right hand place in front of him, so this
could imply instead of idealising the USA he is in fact disrespecting it.
This reflects Springstein’s ideologies and beliefs about America and is
publicising it to his audience by using this strong image that portrays
his political stance.
The image of Springstein’s backside is quite sexualised and therefore
appealed to his female fan base as the jeans are tight and his backside is
one of the main focuses of the cover and this is amplified with the
bright red cap in his back pocket as it draws your attention to it. The
image also appeals to his male fan base because of mise-en-scene and
his costume, men could very easily relate to his ideologies that were
portrayed through the cover art. Using the photo was a good promotion
for Springstein as he is the main feature of the cover and it effectively
reflects what he as a singer is passionate about and it is using
amplification, which is an effective promoting technique.

2. The colours of the cover keep to the 3 main colours associated with the
USA; red, blue and white, this is to reinforce the idea that Springstein is
a typical American guy, reinforced with the baseball cap in his back
pocket as baseball is a very American sport. Also having the blue jeans
featured in the middle of the cover makes the consumer automatically
relate the blue to the red and white background, causing them to realise
that it is the American flag.
The album cover is bright and eye catching which could relate to
Springstein as an artist, and because the album cover is simple and was
easy to produce this would have saved money and also kept in with the
theme of working class citizens and the American dream.
The font that is used at the top of the album cover is very non-descript
and not very noticeable. This is because the cover art image is so strong
that the focus is not to be the text but the image. Blue lettering is used
as this keeps into the colour scheme of the USA (red, blue and white).
Having the lettering at the top is a clever placement and very practical
as ‘Born in the USA’ was released in 1984 and therefore was released
on vinyl. By having the lettering at the top it allows people who are
looking through lots of vinyl’s to see straight away what the album was
and who the artist was. As vinyls were so big this was a clever
marketing ploy and would have helped Springstein’s album sales. It
would have also helped him appeal to new fans as the cover is simple
and has the information where it is easily read and the cover art relates
to the album title, which has a better effect than using disjuncture.