The Boss and The Streets?

The media and popular culture are large vehicles in building masculine identities in men. Music specifically, makes assumptions and puts ideas into heads of boys and men alike that are trying to figure out what it means to be a man. There are hundreds of social “norms” that are made by popular music because the artists are who we look up to and what they say in their songs we, as men, can take as advice. When the writer Norah Vincent went undercover as a man in all male environments, she encountered many of the social norms and tendencies that are prominent in popular music.
When Norah Vincent went undercover as Ned into an intense sales job, she encountered men who would do anything to make money and work their way up the ladder. Like in any primarily male environments, there was a hierarchy of the employees at the workplace. At the top, there was a seeming powerful man named Dano that had worked his way to be the leader of the high-octane group of men called Clutch Advertising. An excerpt from his morning meeting script says enough about the macho vibe on the job. “Everybody wants my job, and if they say they don’t they’re full of shit. Who wouldn’t? I make a lot of money, I wear a $20,000 dollar watch. The business is what gave me my net worth, my house with a pool, my cars, my vacations, my family. I’ve got a better-looking wife than I ever thought I’d get, and I got her because I’ve got a lot of money.” (Vincent, 205-206) Dano is the ultimate power tripping alpha male that was often present at the all male environments she experienced as Ned. Along with the alpha-male, there were the low end guys that were trying their best to make their way up to eventually be at the top.
Bruce Springsteen, a brilliant songwriter, wrote about this same male phenomenon in his song, “Man at the Top”.

“Everybody wants to be the man at the top
Everybody wants to be the man at the top
Aim your gun, son, and shoot your shot
Everybody wants to be the man at the top

Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief
Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief
One thing in common they all got Everybody wants to be the man at the top”

Ironically Bruce Springsteen’s nickname is “The Boss”, but his words in this song represent exactly what Dano spoke about. Every man wants power and everyone wants to make the most money, and his examples of people in his lyrics are all primarily men’s jobs. Doctors, lawyers, and especially an Indian Chief, they are all men and they all want to be at the top of their workplace.

When Norah entered the world of sex as Ned, she found that at times, men looked at women as objects that were used and then forgotten as soon as possible. While not all men act this way, it is a common theme when it comes to an all male environment. When she met a guy named Phil in a bar as Ned, he told her about the advice he received from his dad when he was twelve years old.
“ ‘The four F’s. That’s all you need to know about women. Find ‘em. Feel ‘em. Fuck ‘em and Forget ‘em.’ ” (Vincent, 62) The fact that his father taught him to objectify women shows that it is an impulse that men come to terms with at one point in their life.
The white rapper The Streets, writes about using women and forgetting them the next day in his song “Don’t Mug Yourself”.

“get my phone out
'bout to give this girl a shout
see if she had a nice time last night up town
ask if she fancies a tryin it again sometime
then Calv grabs the phone like oi oi oi

hold it down boy
your heads getting blurred
I know you can't stop thinking of her
By all means you can vibe with this girl
but just don't mug yourself that's all
don't mug yourself”
The song, filled with British slang, is essentially about not getting tangled with a girl that isn’t worth it. He tries to call her, but his friends tell him not to so he doesn’t “mug himself”, or screw himself over. The Streets make it a social norm to not call her after some late night relations. These young men are who other young men look up to, and it will instinctively make us have an impulse to do the same.
When Norah Vincent went undercover as a man she did find what it takes to be a man and what defines us. The media is the biggest motive in making us into men, and it is up to the specific boy to decide how the songs we love affect us. From The Boss to a white rapper from the UK, every artist encounters these masculine roles at one point in their career.

Bruce Springsteen- Man at the Top


Lyrics


The Streets- Don't Mug Yourself


Lyrics