Chuck Klosterman has a new book out about how future generations will perceive our current era. I thought this comment about Billy Joel was interesting and made for good discussion fodder.

 

In 200 years, will Billy Joel still be famous, listened to, well known, known at all? I thought it was interesting because he's someone with a lot of hits, a big following, etc, but hasn't had the landmark impact on music or society that other acts did. I wonder how long it would take for an act as big as he is to drift into the ether of trivia.

 

How will other music or cultural fads hold up into the future?

 

Lets talk for a moment about someone you’ve written about in the past: How will future generations view Billy Joel?

 

How far forward do you wanna go?

 

Let’s say… 200 years.

 

I would say, totally unknown. It’s not really a reflection on him in a specific sense. Two hundred years, you’re talking about multiple generations experiencing popular music — the number of people from the late 20th century in that genre, who can generate traction in generation after generation, is really small.

 

By the time we move 200 years into the future, most of the field of rock and pop will have fallen by the wayside — and it’s hard to create the argument that puts him in the class that keeps going. Dylan, Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones, obviously the Beatles, Chuck Berry, even the Six Pistols or Nirvana. Making these arguments for non-musical reasons — that’s a very big part of it.

 

It’s kind of a paradox, but to be a musician whose legacy lasts for millennia, you need to have a non-musical importance as well. And it’s difficult to see how Billy Joel sort of fits into that equation.

Chuck Klosterman predicts the future: “Chemotherapy will seem like bleeding people with leeches” - Salon.com

Piano Man was released in 1973. Yankee Doodle was released, if you can call it a release, in 1767. Can you tell me who wrote or performed Yankee Doodle?

James Cagney sang it during a movie. No idea who wrote it.

Piano Man was released in 1973. Yankee Doodle was released, if you can call it a release, in 1767. Can you tell me who wrote or performed Yankee Doodle?

 

I can't without looking it up.

All I know is that it had something to do with putting down Americans before the Revolution. No idea who wrote it or who performed it.

Yankee Doodle was a British army song, right? That tune is probably older than the words. My guess is that nobody knows who wrote that tune anymore. If it was ever really recorded.

Yankee Doodle was a British army song, right? That tune is probably older than the words. My guess is that nobody knows who wrote that tune anymore. If it was ever really recorded.

 

I remember it was meant to be demeaning toward the American colonists. And it was the first song I learned how to play on the piano when my parents decided to torture me with that. :lol2:

Piano Man was released in 1973. Yankee Doodle was released, if you can call it a release, in 1767. Can you tell me who wrote or performed Yankee Doodle?

 

Not sure...but in the third grade one of my buddies sang a great version of it in music class that got him a solid two weeks of being stuck writing a punishment during recess.

 

Apparently Yankee Doodle occasionally goes to town riding on a rocket.

I have no idea what the history behind it is, but my point is, 250 years after it was written, nobody knows who wrote it. I guess Piano Man will last forever as a tiny bit of data, which adds maybe 50-100 years to his relevance, speculatively of course.

I was just having a conversation with my bride (well, she at least acted interested) and saying that there are some long-term acts like Billy Joel, Elton John, and Hall & Oates where I only liked their 70s stuff and after that it was of interest to me.

 

I do think there will be some drunk robots sitting in a virtual bar in 200 years crying in their non-liquid hydrogen drink singing "when I wore a younger man's clothes" loud and proud!

Move this post to the Controversial Topics if you must, but in 250 years, Kanye West will be the most recognizable name of the 2000s

Billy who ?

In 200 years, I will have been reprocessed for plant food several times over. Therefore, I don't care.

James Cagney sang it during a movie. No idea who wrote it.

Wasn't that "Yankee Doodle Dandy"?

Chuck Klosterman predicts the future: “Chemotherapy will seem like bleeding people with leeches” - Salon.com

 

This is an absolute truth IMO. Diabetes injections, dialysis and repair of broken bones will be nothing like today. I think in 200 years diabetes will be treated quickly and easily upon diagnosis. The need for Dialysis will be eliminated by the growth of new kidneys from stem cells. In many ways health care as we know it will not exist, it will be more about preventive treatment and early diagnosis with follow up treatment. DNA will be able to be searched for a variety of health issues and treatment will stop many maladies before they ever appear.