Billy Joel: A Comprehensive Case Study of His Music and Influences

This case study provides a critical analysis of Billy Joel, examining his musical influences, techniques, and impact on the contemporary music industry. It highlights the influence of past artists like Beethoven and The Beatles, as well as his classical music upbringing. The analysis emphasizes Joel's fusion of different musical genres and his innovative approach to music videos, where he featured himself as the lead singer. The study concludes that Billy Joel's contributions, including his musical style and approach to music videos, have had a lasting impact on the music industry.

Running head: ARTIST ANALYSIS
ARTIST ANALYSIS: A CASE STUDY OF BILLY JOEL
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1ARTIST ANALYSIS
William Martin Joel or more popularly called by the name of Piano Man was born in
1949 in the city of New York, USA (Billyjoel.com, 2019). He is widely reputed as one of the
best American pianist, composer and Singer-Songwriter. More importantly, he is also one of the
best-selling musicians of all times while being the “sixth best-selling recording artist and the
third best-selling solo artist” in the nation of USA (Rollingstone.com, 2019). Some of the most
important musical pieces which cemented his legacy in the international music arena are “Piano
Man”, “Nobody Knows But Me”, “A Room Of Our Own”, “Prelude/Angry Young Man”, “River
Of Dreams” and others (Duchan, 2015). This paper undertakes a critical analysis of the artist
Billy Joel and his music in the particular context of the influences which were dominant on him,
the techniques used by him and others.
Bañagale and Duchan (2017) are of the viewpoint that the different influences like
upbringing, the work of past artists, religion, present life condition and others play a dominant
role on the musical compositions created by the artists. As discussed by Spicer (2017), the work
of an artist is never a singular piece of work rather the effective amelioration of the different
influences or for that matter the factors which are important from the perspective of the
concerned artist. In the particular context of the artist Billy Joel, it needs to be said that the work
of the past artists like Beethoven, Dave Brubeck, the Beatles, George Gershwin, Ray Charles,
Phil Spector, Fats Domino and others (Atkinson, 2018). For instance, it had been seen that the
majority of the piano compositions of Joel are inspired from the compositions of Beethoven and
the other artists related to the same genre of music (Duchan, 2015). On the other hand, it is seen
that the influence of artists like the Beatles, George Gershwin, Ray Charles, Phil Spector, Fats
Domino and others is perceptible within the framework of the different songs composed by him
(Spicer, 2017). He himself acknowledged the fact that one of the most important things which

2ARTIST ANALYSIS
changed his attitude towards music was watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. For
example, he himself said that “That one performance changed my life ... Up to that moment I'd
never considered playing rock as a career. And when I saw four guys….look in John Lennon's
face….I know these guys, I can relate to these guys…play in a rock band” (Rollingstone.com,
2019).
More importantly, an important aspect of the songs composed by Joel is the fact that
although the techniques or for that matter the artistic styles which he uses for the composition of
his musical pieces are being influenced by the works of the past artists yet at the same time it had
been seen that the themes or the concepts which he expostulates or focuses on are contemporary
in nature and also in synchronicity with the present times (Bañagale & Duchan, 2017). For
example, the majority of the songs composed by him focus on the themes which are
contemporary in nature rather than being traditional ones. Furthermore, the influence of his
upbringing is also being perceptible within the musical compositions of Joel. For instance, his
father was a classical pianist and his mother also had a profound for music especially classical
music. Moreover, realizing his inclination towards music, his parents arranged for him to receive
musical education from one of the most reputed American pianists, named, Morton Estrin whose
influence is prominently visible within the different piano compositions made by him in the early
part of his musical career (Billyjoel.com, 2019). Thus, he received encouragement in his
childhood to pursue not as a hobby but as a fulltime profession and this in turn influenced the
different musical compositions undertaken by him in the later part of his life.
Bañagale and Duchan (2017) are of the viewpoint that an important aspect of the musical
compositions or for that matter the musical works of Joel is the fact that rather than relying
solely on particular genre of music he takes the help of the process of fusion of different musical

3ARTIST ANALYSIS
genres. This in turn had helped him to create or for that matter compose the kind of musical
pieces which are not artistically superior in quality or nature but at the same time artistically
more pleasing from the perspective of the audience or the music listeners as well. For instance, it
is seen that even when he is singing or composing a particular song, the classical piano musical
strain remains dominant within the same despite the fact that the concerned songs are composed
in the musical genre of rock music. This in turn had helped him to create or for that matter
compose songs like “Roberta”, “A Matter of Trust” and other similar songs which in the later
part of the 20th century captivated the music listeners substantially (Atkinson, 2018). More
importantly, it had been seen that the majority of the official videos of the musical pieces or
songs composed by him features him as the lead singer unlike the practice followed by the other
artists of the music industry wherein it is been seen that various popular models and actors are
used to ensure the success of the same (Spicer, 2017). In the light of these aspects, it can be that
two of the most important contributions made by Joel towards the contemporary music industry
are the introduction of the musical technique of the fusion of the different musical genres and the
creation of the musical videos wherein the lead singers and the band members act in the video
rather than the actors or the models.
To conclude, Billy Joel had left a substantial amount of influence on the contemporary
music industry not only on the score of the musical contributions made by him but also on the
score of the change which he had brought in the creation of musical videos as well. For instance,
it had been seen that in the majority of the musical compositions made by Joel a strong classical
strain exists and he uses this aspect of his music to fuse different genres of music so as to gratify
the musical needs of the listeners. These aspects of the musical compositions of Joel become
apparent from the above discussion of the same.

4ARTIST ANALYSIS
References
Atkinson, S. (2018). Deceptive love and denied endings: tropes in the music of Billy
Joel. Popular Music, 37(3), 415-423.
Bañagale, R. R., & Duchan, J. S. (2017). A Public Musicology Conference on Billy Joel. The
Bulletin of the Society for American Music, 43(1), 5.
Billyjoel.com, (2019). Home | Billy Joel Official Site. Retrieved 29 August 2019, from
https://www.billyjoel.com/
Duchan, J. S. (2015). Disappointment, Frustration, and Resignation in Billy Joel’s The Nylon
Curtain. Rock Music Studies, 2(2), 168-187.
Rollingstone.com, (2019). Billy Joel on Turning 70, Donald Trump and Why He Writes Music
Just For Himself Now. Retrieved 29 August 2019, from
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/billy-joel-turning-70-donald-trump-
new-music-831081/
Spicer, M. (2017). Rock Music. Routledge.