How is a song that was released in 1977 that was not popular at the time of its release now a trend with teenage girls? Vienna by Billy Joel is a 3:34 minute long soft rock song released on the album The Stranger, as the B-side to his “Just the Way You Are” single.
When this song came out it wasn’t even high up on the billboards but eventually after it’s breakout in the media it gained popularity. Its first modern-“debut” was in the 2004 rom-com “13 Going on 30.” The film, starring Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo tells the story about a teenage girl, who is so eager to fast forward to adulthood, only to learn that being an adult is not what she expects. She ends up wishing she had cherished her youth. It’s played during a pivotal scene where the grown up Jennifer Garner reminisces her teen years when walking past a group of teen girls laughing and having fun. In a 2018 interview with Vulture Billy Joel said “That’s a movie that was popular with girls, and girls are who most of the enthusiasm for the song comes from.”
Social media also has a lot of responsibility in the rebirth and new found love of this song. Especially on platforms like Tik Tok with over 200k videos made using the song. Following this it goes along with the very popular trend in media called“ Girlhood.” It’s the characterization of the time in a girl’s life, typically high school when she begins maturing. It’s defined as “the experience of growing up as a girl. It involves exploring identity, building friendships, and facing societal expectations during adolescence.” One user commented on a post “Every teenage girl has their unexplainable emotional attachment to this song, no one knows why, it’s just a pinnacle part of girlhood,”
High school can be one of the most stressful times of a teen girl’s life. Concerns like social pressure, academics, sports, social media, figuring out who you are and even deciding what to wear in the morning all can cause stress and anxiety, sometimes even causing burnout.
Gen Z has a unique set of struggles since the immediacy of social media has changed the way people perceive each other and the standards they set. Recently social media has created the expectation that people need to spend all their time being successful, getting good grades and being productive. One of the main ways people cope with this stress is listening to music. It’s an escape that a lot of people find comforting, just getting lost in the melody of a great song takes your mind off of the stress for awhile
I talked to students on what Vienna means to them and this is what they had to say:
Sophomore Cassidy Ash said, “I love the part when it says ‘if you’re so smart tell me why you’re so afraid’ I literally think about that all the time because it honestly is so real and I relate to it so much. And when it says ‘you can get what you want or you can just get old’ like omg it is all I think about like it makes me reflect so much.” Vienna is a song that makes you reflect because of its second person perspective where it’s almost singing the song to the reader reassuring them.
Eighth grader Maysen Skiba said, “I kinda have just grown a connection to it over time, I usually make tik toks to it and it reminds me of good times? it’s also just a really great song in general”. This song has been popular on many platforms but especially Tik Tok. With hundreds of thousands of plays this song has become increasingly popular.
2024 Alumni Charlotte Hoffman’s senior quoted a line from the song. I discussed with her the reasoning on why she picked that quote and she said ” I picked it because I feel as if everyone can relate to the feeling of you not doing enough or you have to have everything figured out when in reality you have your whole life to figure it out and stressing about it now does nothing. I love that song so much not just because of the lyrics but the beautiful piano I think makes it perfect.” This quote speaks for itself on the impact that this song has on people. It’s easy to relate to and has a mesmerizing piano melody.
Every line in this song has an extremely deep underlying meaning, but there’s a few in particular that stand out:
Slow down you crazy child
You’re so ambitious for a juvenile
Many people take life as a constant rat race to get the end goal of being old and successful. Life is fast paced but it doesn’t have to be. We try to rush through life and get things done as fast as possible, constantly trying to just get the day over with and move on to the next one. Oftentimes we set unrealistic standards for ourselves to be perfect in every way and were impatient to reach these standards.
But then if you’re so smart tell me
Why are you still so afraid? (mmmmm)
Where’s the fire, what’s the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day
This line really reflects the stress teen girls face and how we are constantly trying to prove ourselves and do everything at once but we burn out in the process. Sometimes we give ourselves a never ending list of tasks trying to fill out time as much as possible. We’re so eager to live our life and be productive that we don’t ever just look around and enjoy it as it is.
But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You’re gonna kick off before you even get halfway through (Oooh)
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
In this song Vienna is used to symbolize old age. Old age is not something to dread, but something to embrace. It’s ok to be old, it’s part of life and it’s ok to grow up just let it happen in its own time. live your life but not by doing everything at once but by cherishing the time you have. The urge to have your life figured out when it reality it’s ok and your future waits for you
Slow down you’re doing fine
You can’t be everything you want to be before your time
There’s a lot of pressure to achieve certain things at certain points in your life. Joel has said that the song reminds listeners that “you don’t have to squeeze your whole life into your 20s and 30s trying to make it, trying to achieve that American dream, getting in the rat race and killing yourself. You have a whole life to live.”
Although it’s so romantic on the borderline tonight (tonight)
Too bad, but it’s the life you lead
You’re so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
We often get so caught up in the hustle that we forget we need breaks. We work ourselves to burnout, filling our free time with more tasks. We avoid rest to try and not “be lazy” in our spare time. People don’t take for granted that rest is being productive and burning out is not a productive thing.
Though you can see when you’re wrong
You know you can’t always see when you’re right (you’re right)
You got your passion, you got your pride
But don’t you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don’t imagine they’ll all come true (Oooh)
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
Slow down you crazy child
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
It’s alright, you can afford to lose a day or two
This line aged very well considering the fact there was no social media addiction 50 years ago. We are so dependent on social media that we are constantly checking it and posting, but that mindset is incredibly harmful to mental health. It’s perfectly ok if you don’t know what’s going on on instagram or Snapchat for a day. It’s beneficial to take a break from the media and just “disappear for a while”.
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
And you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want or you can just get old
You’re gonna kick off before you even get halfway through (oooh)
Why don’t you realize, Vienna waits for you?
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
This song sits in the hearts of so many people not just because of its enchanting melody but its deep and meaningful lyrics. As teens we put so much pressure on ourselves to perform so many roles in such a short timeframe that hearing Vienna reminds us that sometimes it’s okay to slow down and take a breath. We’re going to be okay in the end.
