1980Released
2:56

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about It's Still Rock and Roll to Me. By Songfacts®.

In this song, Billy Joel was making a comment on musical styles and trends. At the end of the disco era, the music press began touting the "New Wave" sound, which included bands like The Police and The Cars. Joel thought that this new sound was just a variation on power-pop that had been around since the '60s. He didn't have a problem with the music, just the way it was being categorized. "I like it, but it's not particularly new," he said.

Around this time, Joel was often abased in the music press as a provider of middle-of-the-road dreck. Popular artists are often targets for journalist derision, but while most of these artists choose to ignore it, Joel responded in this song. The lines, "It doesn't matter what they say in the papers, 'cause it's always been the same old scene" and "There's a new band in town, but you can't get the sound from a story in a magazine," were specifically written to attack the press that was bringing him down. While you can real all you want about a singer or band, the only way you'll really know what they sound like is by listening. "Sometimes the press gave me a hard time, and liked giving them a hard time back," Joel told Howard Stern in 2014. "In my neighborhood, somebody hits you, you hit them right back."

One of Joel's most popular songs, this was his first #1 hit on the Hot 100, spending two weeks at the top spot in July 1980. The single was certified Platinum, which at the time meant sales in excess of 2 million. Joel would score two more #1 hits in America: "Tell Her About It" and "We Didn't Start The Fire."

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of It's Still Rock and Roll to Me.
CKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
141BPM

Album

The album It's Still Rock and Roll to Me is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released It's Still Rock and Roll to Me.
Columbia
(P) 1980 Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

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