The Far Right is Coming for Springsteen

New No. 1 Country Song Attacks Bruce

It started this morning with a Twitter post from Caitlin Rose, one of my favorite Nashville singer-songwriters. She posted the bizarre news from Billboard that a new song making its debut at No. 1 on the Country Songs Chart is "Am I the Only One" by Aaron Lewis, former singer of the undistinguished hard rock band Staind.

The lyric featuring the title makes its case clear:

"Am I the only one who quits singing along every time they play a Springsteen song/Watchin' the threads of Old Glory come undone, I'm not the only one."

The Billboard article notes that behind the song's success was "buzz in part via Fox News, SiriusXM's Patriot Radio and social media platform Telegram."

All of these media organizations are perpetuators of "the Big Lie," that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. But the number one song in country music embracing the Lie by impugning the patriotism of Bruce Springsteen? This is sick, and not in the way that hip-hop culture embraces "sick" the way soul music …