Deceptive love and denied endings: tropes in the music of Billy Joel. Issue 3 (12th September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Atkinson, Sean
• Is Part Of: Popular music. Volume 37:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 415
• Page End: 423
• Publication Date: 2018-09-12
• Subjects: Popular music -- Periodicals; 780.4205
• DOI: 10.1017/S0261143018000405
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0261-1430

Abstract

Abstract: The music of Billy Joel is long overdue for prolonged attention from the scholarly field. As Walter Everett has acknowledged (2000), Joel's music is often more in line with common-practice systems than with popular genres, and when combined with his intuitive understanding of numerous popular styles, makes for a rich trove of harmonic interest. One of the common-practice devices Joel utilises effectively is the evaded cadence (also called a deceptive motion). His use of this harmonic motion reveals two tropes in his music: Deceptive Love describes the complicated nature of love in 'She's Got a Way' and 'She's Always a Woman', while Denied Ending describes the unfinished and unresolved quality at the end of 'Miami 2017'. Uncovering these tropes in Joel's songs leads to a better understanding of the lyrics and the harmonic progressions that underlie them.