Talk:Bruce Springsteen

Promo wording

PsyKat777 WasTaken Hey there! Could you please clarify some wording that may be considered promotional? If you can pinpoint stuff I can clean it up. I'd rather not have an embarrassing tag like that here for very long. Thanks. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 17:40, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Sure, I can do that.

It's very possible that other parts of the section also have this problem, but I see it in the first paragraph of the lead section, with terms like:

"Springsteen is a pioneer"

"combining commercially successful rock with poetic, socially conscious lyrics"

"known for his energetic concerts"

Again, there may be other parts of the article that need fixing, but that definitely stuck out to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that this is allowed on Wikipedia, and especially not in the first paragraph in a lead. PsyKat777 WasTaken (talk) 17:59, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

I think, frankly, this has been an ongoing problem with Springsteen-related articles, not just this one, but trying to keep up with it sometimes feels like you're Sisyphus rolling that rock up the hill. Take a look at Archive 3 of this talk page and you'll find some further discussion of the problems of advertising-type commentary (especially the material, now deleted, that was added at this diff) and excessive trivia. There is one particularly enthusiastic editor who seems to be inclined to throw in more-or-less verbatim copy-and-paste jobs from press releases and other articles without considering whether their inclusion is really appropriate here (the diff I just linked is an example of that sort of edit). I know that individual has been admonished about excessive trivia in the past. 1995hoo (talk) 18:46, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

That's been worded like that for quite some time; I agree though, it does feel a little WP:UNDUE now that you say something. 1995hoo Are you talking about the album articles I've written? Or other ones? I also know who you're talking about. They're always adding content that clearly violates WP:NOTNEWS and never seems to have gotten the hint despite countless removals at this point. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 18:53, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

I'm definitely not referring to anything you've written, put it that way. What I was getting at, admittedly in a somewhat oblique fashion, had to do with the addition of material to one Springsteen article followed very quickly by replication of the exact same text in other Springsteen articles (often with the same disregard of MOS rules, such as my pet peeve of when people disregard MOS:DATECOMMA). To give an example, compare this edit to the article about this year's upcoming tour with this edit, made a few minutes earlier, to the main Springsteen article. I try to clean up the punctuation errors and the stream-of-consciousness feel to those sorts of things when I see them. It's just really hard to keep up with all of it! 1995hoo (talk) 19:59, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Is this "promotional wording" only in the lead section? That seems to be the consensus here...

Pinging PsyKat777 WasTaken 1995hoo Kpubkalanami – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 18:34, 8 March 2026 (UTC)

I assumed that if it had managed to find its way to the lead section that it was likely in other parts of the article as well, but I haven't seen this for myself. And the problem does largely seem to be fixed now. PsyKat777 WasTaken (talk) 21:12, 8 March 2026 (UTC)

PsyKat777 WasTaken If we're being frank, I don't see how the live info was "promotional". It is sourced in the body (and objectively a known fact) that Springsteen is known for his live performances (it is reliably sourced in the body). Promotional wording to me would be something like "His fans say he's the best," you know? Idk, maybe it's just me. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 23:46, 8 March 2026 (UTC)

When looking at the bullets on WP:PROMOTION, what point exactly are we violating? – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 00:04, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

If you think it's fine, you can remove it. PsyKat777 WasTaken (talk) 01:17, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

Actually, since the lead has been adjusted, I just went ahead and removed it myself. PsyKat777 WasTaken (talk) 17:15, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

This comment doesn't necessarily relate to "promotional" content, but I feel like it's consistent with the overall focus above on excessive minutia. An editor added a paragraph saying that Springsteen "will perform" at a political show on March 28, 2026, which is two days in the future as I write this. I think that sort of thing is an obvious violation of WP:CRYSTAL (that is, while he plans to perform, we can't know for certain he actually will perform until he actually does), so I removed the paragraph without prejudice to its being re-added after the fact. I tend to think it also violates WP:NOTNEWS in that I don't think it's necessary or appropriate for this article to turn into a diary of every one-off appearance Springsteen makes. After editing, I realized that the preceding paragraph about a "Democracy Now" event this past Monday probably ought to be deleted as well, but I decided to raise it here on the talk page instead because it was a verifiable appearance that doesn't violate WP:CRYSTAL. I feel like listing every little appearance in which he performs one or two songs constitutes excessive trivia unless something else notable happens as part of the appearance (e.g., if Trump sends ICE agents to try to shut down the show or something). I think that sort of diary is more appropriate for a site like Greasy Lake, the Killing Floor, or (if it were still being updated) Backstreets.com. I solicit other folks' thoughts. 1995hoo (talk) 12:28, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Piano

I propose to add piano to the infobox as one of Bruce's instruments (see , , and , for example). What do others think? ~2026-20489-05 (talk) 18:58, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

Hey there! Typically the instruments in the infobox are meant for primary instruments, or instruments the musician is primarily known for playing. While Springsteen can play piano, he does it a lot less frequently than guitar and harmonica. Roy Bittan handled the piano in all the E Street recordings. For that reason, I would probably say no to adding it, because Springsteen isn't necessarily known as a pianist. Besides, he's played many percussion instruments in the last (on like Tunnel of Love), but he's known first and foremost as a guitarist, with harmonica a close second. Others may have different thoughts but that's my two cents. Thanks for asking! – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 19:25, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree. However, I do feel like we should also add "Keyboards" aswell ElhamHusey (talk) 02:09, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

Proposal to separate political content

With a whole bunch of political stuff starting to fill the page, I propose we separate it into a Political views and activism of Bruce Springsteen article. The section is already missing Springsteen's views against Reagan and more against Bush, but I think there is more than enough to separate the material out into its own article. Having almost everything he says here is really starting to bog the page down. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 18:58, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

I've expanded the section greatly but there's still more to add. So I'll go ahead and create the new page. This page can have a summary for the important stuff. – zmbro _{(talk) (cont)} 20:33, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Why no recent controversy?

I'm wondering why there's no mention of the recent controversy surrounding ticket prices and the reaction of longtime fans feeling betrayed. I'm not a fan of Bruce, so I'm not devoting any of my time towards it, besides bringing attention to it. The largest and longest-running independent fan publication and community, Backstreets, cited it as a reason for its closing. Not too many times do fan clubs shut down without public controversy causing it. [https://www.backstreets.com/news.html]

I just thought it would be important to keep the page accurate, complete, and honest. So it should be mentioned. ~2026-36974-89 (talk) 00:38, 29 August 2026 (UTC)