"We Didn't Start the Fire"

Billy Joel has sold over 150 million records, produced thirty-three Top-40 hits, received six Grammy Awards, and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fans celebrate him, critics deride him, and scholars have all but ignored him. This first-of-its-kind collection of essays on the music of Billy Joel offers close analysis and careful insight into the ways his work has impacted popular music during the last fifty years. Using a diversity of approaches, including those not traditionally found within popular musicological studies, this volume serves as a model for how any scholar can approach the study of popular music, regardless of their methodological leanings. These chapters interrogate how popular music frames personal and collective experiences, participates in the construction of history and culture, and invites us to reflect on its importance in our daily lives.

Ultimately, I leave the interpretation of my music to others. I’ve said all I can, in the music and in interviews. I’m flattered that the last few years have seen an increase in interest in my music on the part of musicologists and other scholars, seeking better understandings of my songs and their place in American history and culture. If that all continues, great. And the chapters in this book are a very good place to start. —from the Foreword by, A wide-ranging, affectionate look at the work of a pop master. This illuminating collection of essays offers diverse perspectives on Joel’s music and makes a compelling scholarly case for his legacy as one of rock’s great songwriters and performers., Following Bach, Beethoven and Brahms before him, Billy Joel is one of the supreme craftsmen of rock, but also a pioneer in original styling, sensitive songwriting, rich arranging and hard-rocking performing. In “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: Billy Joel and Popular Music Studies, we learn from many insightful and colorful perspectives—on topics from compositional detail to performance techniques and venues; comparisons against precursors and megastar contemporaries; co-renditions by cross-gender ASL interpreters; packaging, reception and legacy; and larger social and cultural contexts—how to fully appreciate Joel's intriguing body of work. Moreover, the writers have geared their presentations to the non-specialist reader, a great feat given the multileveled complexity of the lyrics, music and sonics of Joel's entire catalog, no aspect of which is neglected. The collection is topped-off with a penetrating discussion with The Man himself—Bravi!

Joshua S. Duchan is associate professor of music and director of graduate studies in the Department of Music at Wayne State University. Ryan Raul Bañagale is Crown Family Professor for Innovation in the Arts and associate professor of music at Colorado College.