We Didn't Start the Fire Essay Example

Calling We Didn’t Start The Fire an American treasure is an understatement. Written by New york’s Billy Joel in 1989 the song climbed charts as so many of Joel’s songs had done in the past. The song was released on Joel's album Storm Front. The album was released following Joel’s manager being fired for stealing an estimated $90,000,000 from underneath Joel and several lawsuits due to this incident. This inspired much of the writing on the album and even the album’s name. Jole states himself “It was a real nightmare but it made for good material... It was trauma and drama.” The song goes through over 100 major headline events from 1949 (Joel's birth year) to the present 1989. The first verse alone covered over 25 major events from 1949-1952 (Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio, Joe McCarthy, Richard, Nixon, Studebaker, Television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe, Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom, Brando, The King And I, And The Catcher In The Rye, Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen, Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye). The song was inspired by a conversation Billy Joel had with his son’s friend, 21-year-old Jullian Lennon. Lennon was criticizing the previous generations. Claiming that it must have been much easier growing up in the 50s than the 80s. Joel was shocked by the young man's uneducated views about the ups and downs in the 50s and 60s, including, but not limited to, the Korean War, Martin Luther King's assassination, and Robert F. Kennedy's assassination. Without this conversation the song likely would have never been imagined, but how is this single work different from the millions of songs published every year since its release? This can be broken down into the two components of any song; lyrical and musical. 

The initial variable that makes the song amongst the most powerful in history is it is undeniably catchy. Despite the impossible to memorize lyrics, this song will still end up replaying in your head all day. During my time researching alone, the song has been stuck in my head for weeks, replaying in the back of my mind constantly. Despite the complex lyrics they are played to a simple repetitive melody. It has the x-factor, an indescribable variable that makes something uniquely excellent. You could listen to it for hours without a grain of annoyance. This is classic for a song by Billy Joel. It is part of what makes him great. This x-factor allows the song to reach billboard records, and now millions are listening. The melody attracts initial attention.