Thesis

By analyzing themes of nostalgia and anxieties, Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and The 1975’s “Love It If We Made It” demonstrate the reoccurrence of a generational frustration and anxiety toward the consequences of previous generations’s actions and the continued American political standard of complacency. Although “We Didn’t Start the Fire” hints at a fetish for romanticized nostalgia, “Love It If We Made It” reminds the viewer that longing for the past is fictional by portraying a dystopian society. Thus, the cultural and political implications of the videos establish that both a longing for and colonized angst against previous times is transgenerational, making “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “Love It If We Made It” angsty, scream-along anthems that blame previous generations for modern cultural issues. In doing so, Billy Joel and The 1975 ignite a cultural movement in modern youth to ensure that underrepresented voices are not suffocated by political power.