Obviously, Springsteen is a legend of rock music and signifies “Americana” on a global scale. Everyone can picture him wearing a headband and performing in front of an American flag on stage.
However, I recently got downvoted to hell on another sub when I said that Springsteen’s contemporaries, like Tom Petty and Billy Joel, probably had twice as many “known” songs to the average American than he did.
To me, the actual popularity of his music seems heavily concentrated: most of his big songs are from one album, hugely popular in one region of the country (the Northeast), has a legion of diehard Boomer-aged fans (but fewer casual ones).
Am I wrong?