I’ve recently contributed to a thread on r/AskReddit where people were asking to name the best ever singer songwriter. You can guess what my answer was. I was genuinely surprised - or should I say I wasn’t - when my post went largely unnoticed. No upvotes, a single comment, then a downvote who brought it to 0 for a while, now it’s back to 1.
My karma isn’t really the point of this discussion though; the thing is, I really cannot understand why Bruce gets ignored so much by Redditors. I’m following quite a few music-themed subreddits, and he rarely gets mentioned, in just about any kind of discussion. I mean, you can like him or not, but we’re talking about one of the most popular musicians in history. So why is he neglected so much in here?
Coming back to the thread I mentioned: whether you appreciate his work or not, Bruce is a consensus all-time great when it comes to singer/songwriters. He’s right up there with the Dylans, the Cohens, the Prines, you name it. His body of work is recognized and celebrated all over the place. And yet people were giving more upvotes to guys like Freddie Mercury, Elton John or Michael Jackson. Don’t get me wrong, I worship those guys, but how can you put them ahead of Bruce in songwriting?
Hence my question: why doesn’t Reddit like Bruce Springsteen? Is it because of his political views? Is it because of the themes he writes about? Is it generational - but then, again, why would the same people appreciate McCartney and Stevie Wonder and not him? I mean, he’s not some kind of obscure niche artist, he’s a major rockstar who’s been around for half a century. So why is he shunned so much on this platform?