Springsteen has always been noted for his fans. He has a very devoted following. Most of his concerts sell out quickly, and he can still pack forty to sixty thousand people in a stadium. Though not as popular as in the "Born in the USA days," he still puts on one of the best rock shows around. Though not as radical as the "deadheads," Springsteen's fans have been known to follow him around the country, some attending hundreds of shows over the years. What, if anything, is unique about his fans? What sort of impact does his music have on them? What, if any, impact do his fans have on his music?

Let's begin by making a very un-academic assumption. The study of fan demographics is a interesting and complex field, beyond the scope of this project. His core fan base can best be described as white, lower middle class baby-boomers who are liberal in philosophy but slightly more conservative in actuality. How can we make these assumptions? Well, attendance at any one of his concerts will reveal immediately that there are few if any faces in the crowd that are not white. Also, a count of 350 autos, in one section of the parking lot at his October 1, 2003 show at Shea Stadium revealed that 123 of the autos were either SUV's or mini-vans, while another fifty were Acuras, Luminas or Ford Taurus's. OK, enough of the science. Let's proceed by examining a poll taken on a popular Springsteen website run by the author. It's located at http://candysroom.freeservers.com/. It's a large site, containing over 300 pages. When Springsteen is on tour it is visited by 1500 people per day, a figure which drops to 800 when he's not in the news. Who visits the site? Obviously Springsteen fans. Site tracking software indicates that seventy percent of the visitors find the site through various search engines or use links on other Springsteen sites. We can also assume that someone who searches out Springsteen sites on the web is more than a casual fan. It's somebody who is seeking more info on his life or his work. We also must remember that not everyone who visits a site is going to take the necessary time to complete questions in a poll. Again, the more intereseted and devoted fan would be more likely to respond. With those caveats in mind, let's talk about the 127 resonses to the poll. First, let's take a look at the questions.

Responses to the poll were received between 9-19-03 and 11-14-03. Response was jump-started by advertising the poll in a Springsteen-related newsgroups on usenet. Obviously only "very devoted" fans frequent such sites, and this action may have skewed the results to some degree, however there were many replies that came in independent of any solicitation. Of the 127 responses there were seventy-eight males, forty females and nine persons who did not respond to the gender inquiry. Age breakdown is as follows:

13 to 17 years----5
18 to 25 years----10
25 to 35 years----27
35 to 45 years----52
45 + years---------23
Unknown age-----10

Residence of the responders was reported as follows:

Pa, NJ, NY-31
Mid-West USA-21
New England-10
United Kingdom-9
Canada-8
West Coast USA-7
Italy-6
South USA-5
Germany-5
Spain-3
Netherlands-2
One each from Australia, Japan, Ireland and Iceland
Unknown-16

When asked to describe their "fan status" the responses were as follows:

Casual Fan-5
Serious Fan-20
Very Committed Fan-47
Drop-dead Devoted Fan-45
No status reported-10

Responders were asked to describe their politics, on a scale of "left," "right" or "middle-of-the-road." Their responses were as follows:

Left-of-center-36
Middle-of-the-road-62
Right-of-center-10
No reply-19

Responders were then asked to place Springsteen on the same political scale. Responses were as follows.

Left-of-center-74
Middle-of-the-road-31
Right-of-center-3
No Reply-19

Those who described themselves as being "Left-of-center" desribed Springsteen as follows:

Left-of-center-31
Middle-of-the-road-4
Right-of-center-1

Those who desribed themselves as being "Middle-of-the-road" described Sprinsteen as follows:

Left-of-center-34
Middle-of-the-road-26
Right-of-center-2

Those who described themselves as being "Right-of-center" described Springsteen as follows:

Left-of-center-9
Middle-of-the-road-1
Right-of-center-0

Therefore, while only 2% of those who classify themselves as being "Left-of-center" see Springsteen's politics as different than their own, 34% of the middle-of-the-roaders and Right-of-centers see his politics as being "left" of their own.

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1 Melissa McCray Pattacini. "Deadheads Yesterday and Today: An Audience Study."
In Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture,
ed. Michael Petracca & Madeleine Sorapure, 288. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2001.


West Chester University
History 650
Seminar in 20th Century
American Popular Culture
Dr. Charles Hardy
Fall 2003
Joseph O'Brien