In this project, tell a story, the story of a work of public art: what it represents or memorializes, and how it came to be. Your story will also share details on the artwork’s audiences, its contexts (past and present), and what it does: the purposes, ambiguities, and/or controversies that shape its impact in the public sphere.
Composed in three parts: a review, a curate gallery, and a reflection.
Fall Out Boy members, L-R Patrick Stump, Andy Hurley, Pete Wentz, and Joe Trohman. Jeff Fusco for Getty Images
Fall Out Boy's "We Didn't Start the Fire"
Thirty-four years after the original, rock band Fall Out Boy updated Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”—and reception was mixed.
Both songs serve as catalogs of major events in world history, with Joel’s covering events between 1949 and 1989 and Fall Out Boy’s covering events from 1989 to 2023. Restricted to less than four minutes in length, the 2023 take on “We Didn’t Start the Fire” includes references to both political and cultural events like the September 11 attacks, social media platform MySpace, the electoral controversy of Bush v. Gore, and cartoon Spongebob Squarepants. Fans and critics alike, however, were not happy with the song’s selection and questioned why certain events were included while others were left out.
The comments on the song’s Genius page for example demonstrate a yearning for mentions of Princess Diana, the 2008 recession, the USSR’s dissolution, Amy Winehouse, and the COVID-19 pandemic among countless others. Such criticisms on Fall Out Boy’s cover extend into journalism, as one Slate article laments the lack of Twitter, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok, Beyonce, O.J. Simpson, and Monica Lewinsky.
Official Cover Art
(Top) Twitter user @TheJFreakinC criticizes missing elements, 2 July 2023
(Bottom) Twitter user @erinmartina criticizes the song, 3 July 2023
But how could one song encapsulate over thirty years of major events, especially these past thirty years that seemed to have moved at hyper speed? The same Slate article that (seriously or satirically, it’s hard to say) lists things wrong with the song admits, “Yes, yes, it’s a fool’s game to look at this thrown-together list of random-ass things and voice angry history based ‘Where is…?’ objections.” Sure, there are hundreds of other references and catchy rhymes the band could have implemented in the song, but critics who focus on what’s missing are ironically missing what’s there.
Fall Out Boy performing at the 2023 Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on September 12, 2023. Catherine Powell for Getty Images
Pete Wentz performing "We Didn't Start the Fire." Brian Friedman for iHeartRadio
In an interview with Apple Music 1, Fall Out Boy bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz summarizes the essence the band sought to reach through their updated take on the song. Wentz states, “The thing I liked about the original is that it’s just kind of a time capsule, so it’s just got things in it, but there’s no judgment on it or whatever. It’s just of like, ‘Here are these things that happened.’ There’s triumphant characters and there’s despair and it’s just kind of the tapestry of human existence. And so, I think we kind of tried to do that.”
Human existence, essentially, condensed in three minutes and fourteen seconds. Of course not everything can make the cut, even though lead singer Patrick Stump flies through the lyrics at a rapid pace. Instead of focusing on what could have been, let’s focus on what is. And what is, is an attempt to create a time capsule of memory that forms a patchwork of the human existence story.
Even when focusing on what is present, however, critics have not hesitated to voice their displeasure. Aside from the subjective opinions on the song’s sound—many which declare a similar displeasure for the musicality of Joel’s original—critics point out the historical structure. In bringing attention to these world events, Fall Out Boy fails to list them in chronological order. One Slate review describes, “Frankly, this song is completely bonkers, from a historiological standpoint.” Indeed, the band in quick succession moves from 2017 Fyre Fest, to 2006 My Chemical Romance album The Black Parade, and then to Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps who broke records in 2008. This back and forth continues throughout the entire song. In contrast, Joel’s original is roughly in chronological order, creating a logical structure that is lacking in Fall Out Boy’s take on the song.
Fan Patricia Gonzalez adds video footage of the events to Fall Out Boy's "We Didn't Start the Fire"
Fall Out Boy performing "We Didn't Start the Fire." Todd Owyoung for iHeartRadio
However, it is this lack of structure that differentiates not just the two songs but the two eras. During a July 2023 concert, Stump stated that the events are “not chronological on purpose” in order to “evoke the feeling of chaos” of the past thirty years. Technological advances since Joel’s 1989 song have made the world move at such a fast pace that we are constantly overwhelmed with information. We learn about war abroad within minutes, have video footage of tragedy across the country in seconds, and at the same time pop culture continues to drop albums, debut fashion looks, and release films. With screens and Internet connection everywhere, we’re not flipping through a newspaper—we are bombarded with so many things happening around the world and even throughout time. We can Google about the past, watch present events, and view predictions for the future. It’s chaos at our fingertips, so how could a song about encapsulating recent memory not reflect that?
Fall Out Boy released an updated version of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” because so much has happened since 1989 so “a little system update might be fun” as we look back on time. Feelings on this take of the song are mixed as some believe it to be a terrible rendition while others applaud the update. At the core of it, both the original and 2023 update are about how chaotic events are just inherently part of history but the world carries on. Though neither are perfect, both songs capture the essence of their respective eras in the midst of technological changes and failed hopes for the future. Indeed, “We didn’t start the fire. It was always burning since the world’s been turning.”
Official "We Didn't Start the Fire" Lyric Video
Reflection - To the Mercer English Department
My friends and I at a Fall Out Boy concert in the Lakewood Amphitheater, Atlanta, GA on July 26, 2023
I have been a fan of American rock band Fall Out Boy since I was about thirteen, and the band and I are the same age. Though you as faculty members of the English Department may have listened to the band’s music in their early years as you juggled your education, families, or careers, you may not be familiar with recent moves Fall Out Boy has made. Last year, June 2023, Fall Out Boy released an updated version of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” to capture major events of the last thirty years. When they released their song, I was quite intrigued—especially as I saw them in concert for the first time only a month later. I found it to be exciting to see how major events conglomerated into this patchy mess that I felt conveyed the chaos our lives are now.
As a song from a major artist, the song quickly trended on social media as countless people experienced the music and supplemented it with their own worldviews. As a history major and as just someone living in an era in which pop culture surrounds us at all times, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” created a very clear bridge between my academics and extracurriculars. I often wonder what historical events I live through will be remembered and how they will be remembered. This song gives us one perspective. I tend to study history as a very active and lively thing that is influenced by so many things while I take in pop culture in a very empty and even mindless way. Music, as Dr. Silver demonstrated in his Contemporary Song course last spring, can serve as a way to link the humanities and the public sphere. It is usually poetry we akin music to, but in this case history—and its SEAM concepts of storytelling and memory—are prominent. Music is everywhere and catchy tunes and beats inherently stick in your mind. When you go shopping, light music plays in the store speakers; when you drive down the street, the car next to you blasts music so loud you can feel the vibrations; when you stand in line at the cafeteria, you might whistle a tune or tap a beat.
Cover Art of Billy Joel's 1989 "We Didn't Start the Fire"
My view of the Fall Out Boy concert in the Lakewood Amphitheater, Atlanta, GA on July 26, 2023
As a piece of public art, music allows us to expose the public to the humanities in a way that is better received. Non-humanities people might cringe away from lectures and university courses, but they’ll listen to music and watch TV even if they don’t realize that the humanities are intrinsically tied to it. In the case of Fall Out Boy’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” critics gripe with the sound and perceived simplicity of the lyrics. But our humanities majors can see beyond that. They can see how it is a commentary on the current attitude towards history, memory, and storytelling. Studying public art, not just this song, can demonstrate the value and relevance of the humanities—they allow us to communicate with not just words but with ideas.