Many teenagers today would have no idea who Billy Joel is if you asked them. Maybe the only ones that would have heard of him would be teens who listen to their parent’s music or people who know him from Step Brother’s famous line “Strictly 80s Joel”. However, if you asked teenagers who Billy Joel was 50 years ago they would go insane. Billy Joel was one of the biggest music makers in the 70s and 80s. His music would often be beloved with the melody being loved by a young audience, and the lyrics and meaning being felt and loved by his older audience.
Joel shot to stardom when he released his biggest song “Piano Man” when he was just 24 years old. His 70s music was filled with slow piano music with deep lyrics that resonated with his audience. His music shifted in the 80s into more upbeat melodies and fun lyrics, however he still had songs with deep meaning and his fans only grew in numbers as time went on. Joel released his last album in 1993, and preferred just to be on tour from now on. This decision marked a three decade hiatus of no new Joel releases until recently when he came out of the dark.
On February 1st 2024, Joel released his new song “Turn the Lights Back On.” The song was about him not releasing a song for so long, but also how he was here now to release this one and wondering if he was to late to release it. The song touches on all of Joel’s specialties with him playing the piano and singing just like so many of his early songs. The music video explores this more as it shows every decade of Joel playing the piano and singing along with the tune. Overall it is a great comeback song for a musical legend to turn the lights back on and come back into the spotlight for which is hopefully not one last time.
