By a »thick description« (Clifford Geertz) of its words, music, publication strategy, and contemporary reception, the article introduces Bruce Springsteen’s landmark single Born to Run (off of his 1975 album by the same title) as a song that stages the basic paradox of Rock ’n’ Roll culture: As the desperate account of an attempt to break free from society’s narrow-mindedness with the help of fast cars and motorcycles, the song follows (as well as re-establishes) the basic iconography of the American Dream in its late 20th century version (as described, among others, by Greil Marcus) and establishes Springsteen as one of the most influential artists in
mainstream Rock. But at the same time, the song reflects the consequences of this success by using the metaphor of the highway for the fact that, by the mid nineteenseventies, the seemingly individualized promise of Rock ’n’ Roll has become a part of mass culture: Since within this culture »everybody is out on the run tonight«, the ride to freedom gets stuck in the very traffic jam Born to Run alludes to in its last
verse.

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