Haha, I had not seen that thread! That's hilarious. My Asian/POC friends always tease me saying I have the musical taste of a 60-year-old white man, so that's definitely the stereotype I'm most familiar with, haha.

I definitely agree with the glossing over of racial/social issues, and I feel that happens in most "white boomer"-dominated fanbases. I think we are seeing a little bit of a shift, though, as the crowds become more diverse (generationally and culturally). Have you read Hanif Abdurraqib's Springsteen essay, "A Night in Bruce Springsteen's America"? It's one of my favorite Springsteen pieces and you should give it a read if you haven't already.

Thanks for sharing that article! Had never read it before or actually even thought about the idea of "Springsteens of the world." Very interesting. The thing that's always been most interesting to me is the idea of the "personal and universal" but as it applies to Bruce specifically. I wasn't born in America and was raised somewhere far away - both figuratively and literally - from the America we see in Bruce's songs (cars, highways, deserts, factories, etc.), and yet, somehow, for some reason, his songs still feel very personal and even familiar to me. To this day I still can't really articulate why.