“Bruce Springsteen or Kid Rock,” someone simply wrote on Twitter over the weekend, accompanied by a picture of the pair. Soon a seemingly innocuous post had become an intense battleground over politics and music but mainly politics.
Kid Rock has hit the headlines recently for his outspoken nature far more than his music. He defended using a homophobic slur in a very homophobic way; he told fans he’d cancel concerts that had COVID-19 vaccine mandates; he told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he was “uncancelable”. Politics even seeped into his music, with recent single ‘Don’t Tell Me How To Live’ featuring rants against “woke” culture and the media.
Springsteen, meanwhile, is famously on the opposite end of the political spectrum. A long-time supporter of Barack Obama, The Boss was fiercely critical of Kid Rock’s mate Donald Trump throughout his presidency.
In the Twitter poll’s comments, though, Kid Rock got a lot of support. “Kid Rock hands down the best performer and a true patriot,” wrote someone. The original poster insisted the left can’t stand him because “he told Tucker he doesn’t give a fuck what people think of him and the industry can’t control him.”
The original poster also sided with Kid Rock musically: “Putting politics aside, When I heard Bruce and his strained, almost in tune songs come on the radio..I changed the channel,” she recalled.
Looking back at their musical careers, the cold hard facts really only show one winner. In terms of sales and overall popularity, Kid Rock comes nowhere near Springsteen. The Boss has had a total of 26 songs on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, with Kid Rock trailing him having had just 6 songs make the chart. Just one of these made it into the top 10, compared to Springsteen’s 12.
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Springsteen is also one of the best-selling artists of all time, with 150 million record sales worldwide, compared to Kid Rock’s 27 million. He has 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, even an Academy Award.
Leaving politics aside, who do you think is better between Kid Rock and Bruce Springsteen?
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