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Using Billy Joel's music as a lens on history and culture, this volume introduces a variety of musicological approaches to one of the most popular entertainers of the past fifty years.
List of contents
Foreword by Billy Joel
Introduction: "The Stranger": Locating Billy Joel in Popular Music Studies
Ryan Raul Bañagale and Joshua S. Duchan
Part I: "Somewhere Along the Line": Considering Tradition
Chapter One: From Liverpool to Hicksville: Sgt. Pepper Meets The Nylon Curtain
Joshua S. Duchan
Chapter Two: Movin' Out on Thunder Road: Images of Ambition, Escape, and Authenticity in Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen
John J. Sheinbaum
Part II: "This Is the Time": Performance Analysis
Chapter Three: Billy Joel, Piano Culture, and Rock's Road Not Taken
Jonathan D. Bellman
Chapter Four: Form, Lyrics, and the "Short-Short-Long" Pattern in Billy Joel's Music
Don Traut
Part III: "You're My Home": Imagined Locations
Chapter Five: "The Downeaster 'Alexa'": Billy Joel Signifies Folk
Morgan Jones
Chapter Six: "Nothing Rhymes With Bethlehem": City Branding Schemes and the Strategic Deployment of Billy Joel's "Allentown"
Sarah Messbauer
Part IV: "Stop in Nevada": Live Performance
Chapter Seven: "She's Got a Way": Gendered and Physical Embodiment in Interpreting Billy Joel in American Sign Language
Elyse Marrero
Chapter Eight: Twenty-First-Century Patronage: The Road to Billy Joel's Madison Square Garden Concert Residency
Stan Soocher
Part V: "Just the Way You Are": Arranging Billy Joel, Arranging Ourselves
Chapter Nine: Scenes From a Music Museum: The Piano Man's Notebooks in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Jason Hanley and Kathryn Metz
Chapter Ten: Disavowing Billy Joel: Taste Shaming and "Schlock" Fandom
James Deaville
Chapter Eleven: My Lives: Greatest Hits and the Arranging of a Career
Ryan Raul Bañagale
Part VI: Transcript
Chapter Twelve: "Take the Phone Off the Hook": A Public Interview with Billy Joel, interviewed by Ryan Raul Bañagale and Joshua S. Duchan
About the Editors and Contributors
Discography
About the author
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 associate professor of music and director of performing arts at Colorado College.
Summary
Using Billy Joel's music as a lens on history and culture, this volume introduces a variety of musicological approaches to one of the most popular entertainers of the past fifty years.
