The Springsteen phenomenon. He was freakin' huge that year. I sure went "wtf" when I first heard Dancin' in the Dark though.
Born in the USA is when I lost interest in Bruce. It all sounds really repetitive. There certainly was good stuff in there, but nearly as interesting as earlier work.
Seriously? Wow, I think it's one of those Important-with-a-capital-"I" albums that comes along only rarely. It's certainly more overtly political than anything he'd done up to then. And the fact that middle america bought it in the millions because (most of 'em) misinterpreted the message (thinking it jingoistic and patriotic when in fact it's the opposite) is both funny and quite satisfying. Tho' IMHO JCM's "Scarecrow" topped it the following year.
True, but his sound had been homogenized and updated to conform to what, to a certain extent, was getting played on the radio. It did get them played on the radio, and as Rod pointed out, provided a point of entry for those who hadn't heard Bruce much to that point, but at the expense of some older fans who thought him to be selling out.
