“This must be prevented! No career re-evaluations please! No false contrarian rehabilitations! He was terrible, he is terrible, he always will be terrible. Anodyne, sappy, superficial, derivative, fraudulently rebellious. Joel’s famous song “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”? Please. It never was rock ‘n’ roll. Billy Joel’s music elevates self-aggrandizing self-pity and contempt for others into its own new and awful genre: “Mock-Rock.”

The awfulness of Billy Joel, explained. - By Ron Rosenbaum - Slate Magazine

Fucking awesome.

Addenda: Around 1980, I had a college roommate who contended that Billy Joel was a greater “art criminal” than Barry Manilow because Manilow at least acknowledged that he was superficial. The key phrase above is “fraudulently rebellious.” (via inadvisable)

Hmm. Though I think Mr. Rosenbaum is being overly harsh, I’m most disappointed that he didn’t title the piece ‘The Evil of Banality’. Opportunities like that don’t come every day, you know.

Notes