Won’t Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America

Politics rather than geography is the defining feature of heartland rock, contends this thorough history from music journalist Osmon (Jason Molina). The genre originally known as “working class rock” emerged in the 1970s, as artists churned out songs featuring “factory workers, farmers, the American dream, underdogs, [and] the open road” amid a period of social unease. Osmon highlights the careers of Tom Petty, John Mellencamp, Bob Seger, and Bruce Springsteen, focusing on their political leanings and efforts to establish Farm Aid and other benefit concerts. She also explores how their songs have been misinterpreted by popular culture, with tracks like Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” harnessed by politicians eager to “inject a working-class subtext” into campaigns, and Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” written about the plight of a Vietnam veteran, adopted as an anthem of uncritical patriotism. Despite that—and the fact that the genre has been used in the Trump era as the “soundtrack of insidious white grievance”—Osmon makes a strong case for its enduring legacy, noting how more recent bands harnessed its “against-the-odds moxie” to speak for “the 99 percent.” Spotlighting a broad range of famous and lesser-known artists, this is a robust assessment of a quintessentially American genre. (Apr.)