Music, even more so than poetry and art, has the ability to persuade and manipulate the masses. Covertly disseminating its meaning through lyrics and melody, music, when played well, has the uncanny capacity to stick in the minds of its listeners. It embeds itself, often frustratingly so, for what is often an extended period of time, and lurks in the subconscious, threatening to resurface at even the most inopportune of times. A melancholy melody has the ability to bring an entire audience to tears. A fight song can rally players in a football game, or troops on a battle field. As was the case with the band The Velvet Underground in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s, music can bring an entire nation to revolution against an oppressive government. The influence of music is such that totalitarian regimes often censor artists and musicians before anyone else in order to subdue their territories and ensure stability, for fear of music's power over people. Northern troops sung tunes like Julia Ward Howe's The Battle Hymn of the Republic during the Civil War when going into battle, and it was this song and many similar ones that carried the Union and the Confederacy alike through the treacherous war. The hymn's patriotic lyrics and marching melody instill a sense of nationalism and pride in the listener even today. Similarly, although more than 100 years after, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. became the sound of a nation united, and was at one point almost the campaign song of Ronald Reagan. The famous lyrics in the chorus and the powerful bass line seem to serve the same purpose as Julia Ward Howe's song. However, the lyrics of the verse say something very different, and are in fact very critical of the United States. While Howe's The Battle Hymn of the Republic and Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A seem at surface level to have contradictory messages of patriotism and criticism, both songs aim to support and elevate the United States by denouncing the internal division and conflict of both time periods. 

The repetition of the simple lyrics in the chorus of both Born in the U.S.A. and The Battle Hymn of the Republic enforces above any other meaning a sense of patriotism and pride for the United States, and serves to instill a sense of unity amongst its listeners in an otherwise divided era. Julia Ward Howe's chorus sings time and time again the same refrain, "Glory, glory, hallelujah" (Howe). After four repetitions of these three words, the chorus comes to a close with "Our God is marching on" (Howe). These simple lyrics simultaneously invoke a sense of divine purpose in its listeners, the first of whom were Union soldiers in the Civil War, and encourage the soldiers to persevere, as their God is marching along with them. Together, these lyrics are more powerful than any other line in the song. The idea of manifest destiny, one held by many Americans prior to the war, is heavily referenced in the chorus, as the lyrics imply that God is fighting alongside the Union and wants the Union to succeed in its noble and divine cause (Hallelujah!). The minimalistic chorus of this song enforces a sense of purpose and hope in the war torn and beleaguered troops, in the way only a powerful hymn ever could. Bruce Springsteen's famous chorus similarly resounds with hope and patriotism, and is even more simplistic, yet no less effective in its purpose. Springsteen shouts in his famous scratchy bellow, "Born in the U.S.A! I was born in the U.S.A" (Springsteen). The pounding drums and buzzing electric organ in the chorus ignited the country when it was released in 1984 the same way The Battle Hymn of the Republic did when it was sung on the battlefield in the late 19th century. Springsteen's repetition of those four words, "Born in the U.S.A," fuels a patriotic fire in any listener within ear shot, and makes the audience feel proud for simply having been born in a country as great as the United States. However, there is far more to each song than just the chorus, and the methods by which Springsteen and Howe achieve their goals of unity through their lyrics vary drastically in their respective verses.  

While Howe rallies the Union troops against the Confederacy by implying that they are doing God's work, Springsteen exclusively references a Vietnam War veteran and his struggles, creating a stark contrast from the patriotism put forth in the chorus, yet nonetheless emphasizing that there is an opponent the United States must defeat if it is to be prosperous. In the first verse of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Howe depicts God fighting alongside what can only be presumed to be Union soldiers, vanquishing his common enemy (the Confederates) with a sword of lightening. This vivid imagery quite clearly aims to support northern troops by expressing the divinity of their noble cause. So righteous is their pursuit of freedom, so noble is their desire to reclaim the southern states, that God himself has descended to Earth to support them. In the fourth verse, Howe, more so than in any other part of the song, clearly highlights the enemy that the Union must subdue. The verse reads as follows, "He has sounded from the trumpet/ That shall never call retreat/ He is sifting out the hearts of men/ Before His judgment-seat" (Howe). Howe calls out the Confederate troops as being essentially doomed to hell, as they will not pass God's judgment, and implores the Union troops to never back down from their noble cause. The verses of the hymn work to support the chorus and reinforce the idea that the United States should unite as a nation to do God's work, and subdue the South for the betterment of all mankind. By contrast, Springsteen's verses starkly contrast the message he sends in his timeless chorus, and unlike Howe, Springsteen's enemy is harder to identify. 

While Springsteen's chorus rings with the same resounding pride and enthusiasm as Howe's, oddly enough, the verses seem to point exclusively at the United States' inability to take care of her own soldiers after war, which completely contradicts the theme of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. In the verses of Born in the U.S.A., Springsteen follows the hardship and desperation felt by a Vietnam War veteran in the years following the conflict. Springsteen describes the veteran's inability to get a job, points out the flaws and inadequacies of the Veterans Association, and emphasizes how after this soldier's noble duty was completed, his country abandoned him. Springsteen summarizes the veterans struggles in his final verse when he says the following, "Down in the shadow of penitentiary/ Out by the gas fires of the refinery/ I'm ten years burning down the road/ Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go" (Springsteen). Springsteen harshly criticizes the United States in his verses, and echoes a common complaint of the era, that being the United States' failure to appropriately compensate and support its veterans. It appears odd that Springsteen places these lyrics alongside the patriotic chorus and upbeat melody, considering that they appear to completely contradict each other.  Similarly, while The Battle Hymn of the Republic sings to defeat the enemy and bring the United States to victory, Born in the U.S.A. seems to be in direct opposition to this message, and sounds more like a harsh denunciation of the United States than anything else. However, although the enemy in Howe's battle song may be easier to understand, both Springsteen and Howe reference the sole hindrance to the future success of the United States. To Howe, the Confederacy is the only thing in the way of America's manifest destiny. To Springsteen, the only thing slowing down the United States, is itself. 

While at first glance Howe's hymn and Springsteen's anthem seem to share nothing other than their patriotic choruses, each song points to obstacles the United States most overcome if it is to continue in its path of liberty, freedom, and equality. Howe's enemy, in keeping with the time period, is the Confederacy. The split between North and South in the late 19th century threatened to prove to the world that the great experiment that is the United States had failed. For the North to lose the war would be to show that God had not blessed this great nation, and that the ideals of personal freedom that supported the United States were merely pillars of sand. Howe wrote the lyrics to her song in an attempt to call out the confederacy and rally the troops to defeat a shared enemy. Springsteen also writes about an enemy, but one of a very different sort. The enemy condemned in Born in the U.S.A. is the growing lethargy of the United States, and the apparent apathy of the government towards its people. The 1980s was a time of social unrest and internal turmoil in the United States, and Springsteen uses his song to show that the only threat left to America's prosperity comes from the inside. Springsteen, like Howe, brings his audience together with a sense of nationalism in his chorus, and describes the nature of America's enemy in his verses. Both Howe and Springsteen agree that if the United States is to prosper, it must overcome its adversaries, whether they hold guns and wage war, or hold pens and sit behind desks.

While at first glance Born in the U.S.A. and The Battle Hymn of the Republic seem to have opposing messages, both songs aim to ensure the prosperity of the United States by ridding the nation of its opponents. The only difference between the two is that Howe's opponents were armed rebels, and Springsteen's were apathetic and uncaring politicians. Both songs instill the listener with a sense of pride and passion in the way only a song could, and ignite the patriotic fire within nearly anyone who listens. While from drastically different epochs, Springsteen and Howe both reinforce the idea that freedom is not free, and that if the United States is to continue to succeed and be prosperous, it must never grow comfortable, it must never stop fighting, and above all, must never take its freedoms and liberties for granted, for wherever there is freedom, there are those who wish to destroy it. It is imperative that the United States continue to protect against its adversaries as guardedly now as it did after the first shot of the revolution. 

