Mega Music Talent

It’s a shock that Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift are in the same sentence, but it here goes - Springsteen threw off the country princess from her top chart spot this week with over 223,000 copies of his (and his E Street Band) latest album, Working on a Dream, bumping the Love Story queen from her eight week reign. Though the Boss only threw her off by one spot, Working on a Dream is bound to continue making the move through the Billboard charts as it’s not his first time at the top ? nor his second, but rather his ninth (hence, the nickname, perhaps?). It shouldn’t surprise many that the man behind smooth, folksy vocals is seeing a jump in the sales charts as his performance on the highest rated television show (the Super Bowl’s nearly 96 million viewers) and vocal support during President Barack Obama’s campaign helped to spark more attention in his direction. As the crowd followeed him and listened to his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes and were instantly enthralled with the rock veteran.

Springsteen isn’t taking things slowly this year, as his February 1st; 12 minute Super Bowl appearance followed his appearance at the inaugural concert for President Barack Obama and his win at the Golden Globes for his The Wrestler track. Almost 60 years old and it seems like the rock star, who is still competing with men his own age like Eric Clapton, The Stones and Paul McCartney, isn’t gearing up to retire any time soon. As Working on a Dream remains at the top of The Billboard 200, Springsteen and his E Street Band are filing in among other crooners at top indie festivals - Bonnaroo Arts & Music Festival is apparently Springsteen’s chance to get those college aged, free-spirits in tents a chance toward a new lifeline. “With Springsteen, it’s like his musical influence almost skipped a generation,” Joe Levy, the editor of Blender Magazine said to NY Daily News. Levy’s opinion is that while the ’90s weren’t a successful decade for Springsteen, the Boss’s notes have finally caught second wind with hipsters as younger bands look to him for influence, such as Gaslight Anthem and The Killers. “It’s an odd fit, but there is some fit there,” Levy continued. What’s even remarkable is that even with all the spotlight Springsteen is getting this year, the Bonnaroo performance will be his only festival in North America. Though it won’t be his only headlining performance, tickets are going like wildfire as Super Bowl hype, a few political headshots and some indie headlines are relighting that fire.

Working on a Dream includes his Golden Globe track along with twelve other tracks that were written, according to Springsteen, during the production of Magic, his 2007 album. “Towards the end of recording Magic, excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing. When my friend producer Brendan O’Brien heard the new songs, he said, ‘Let’s keep going.’ Over the course of the next year, that’s just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year’s tour. I hope Working on a Dream has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we’ve ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end,” Springsteen said on his website. Recorded in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City and New Jersey, Working on a Dream is Springsteen’s twenty-fourth album.

Author Bio: This article is sponsored by StubHub and was written by Meaghan Clark. StubHub.com is a leader in the business of selling Bruce Springsteen tickets, as well as sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.