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‘No one understands a woman in her 20s like Billy Joel’: gen z finds solace in anti-hustle anthem Vienna
The nearly 50-year-old song has been adopted by the under-30s to describe their particular feelings of ennui
In 2022, the now defunct Mel magazine chalked some of the song’s success up to the fact that unlike Joel standards such as Just the Way You Are or New York State of Mind, it’s rarely overplayed, and not thought of as corny. The refrain of “slow down, you’re doing fine” soothes a specific kind of Gen Z malaise, reminding kids raised on the immediacy of social media and the restless news cycle to take a step back. Photograph: Liv KeatonIn 2018, Joel attributed the song’s strange afterlife to its inclusion in a pivotal scene in 13 Going on 30 – a Jennifer Garner romcom from 2004 where a preteen wishes to be an adult, only to grow disillusioned with the promises of womanhood after she wakes up as a high-powered thirtysomething magazine editor.
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