The Piano Man cometh

Let me be blunt. I am bothered and somewhat offended by the USG's plan to have Billy Joel as this year's fall concert performer. Not because Joel, as one professor said, epitomizes everything that's wrong with "suburbo-rock" (though I tend to agree). Not even because I don't like Mr. Joel — I'll admit to having quoted him in my high school yearbook. Rather, because Mr. Joel - more precisely, the $30-40 price tag with which the 800 "lucky" students who win the ticket lottery will be faced in order to see him - only solidifies the class-based, Caucasian-dominated, wealth-driven social structure that permeates this University.

Sure, most of us know that there's something wrong with the eating-club-based social dynamic here, but this latest decision by the USG - the same USG that, in its recently released studies of race and gender equity, purported to be trying to help solve these problems on campus - only serves to exacerbate the problem.

First of all, only 800 or so students will win tickets to the "Evening with Billy Joel" in a lottery. Is it really too much to ask that the University's fall concert be open to all interested students? Is exclusivity so pervasive on this campus that it has become the norm? Am I going to need a pass to get into Firestone next week? What color will it be? How will I know? Is a bouncer going to turn me away from the Frist center if I don't have a sorority girl on my arm?

Second of all, the "evening" will run students $30 or $40, depending on how "lucky" they are. This would seem to exclude most students who are financially self-dependent and, more significantly, would seem to inherently exclude students from poorer backgrounds. Is it not bad enough that we select our dining companions, in essence, based upon how much money they have? Is it not bad enough that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of students can't join an eating club - bicker or sign-in - because of the prohibitive costs?

And now, the USG - part of the University establishment that constantly disavows responsibility for the injustice inherent in the eating club system on the grounds that the clubs are private institutions free to act as they desire - is setting up the fall concert. It is one of the few times a year when the entire University community comes together - not just fraternity boys, sorority girls, lacrosse players and legacies, but everyone, of all races, classes and social cliques. And the USG is setting up the concert in a manner that excludes and separates students along economic lines. This decision is not just absurd and incomprehensible, but outrageously hypocritical.

There are enough problems at this school without the USG contributing to the mess. It bears mentioning, moreover, that Mr. Joel is another in a series of performers who cater largely to a rich, suburban, yuppie, white audience — to wit, Willie Nelson, Ben Folds Five, Blues Traveler, Bob Dylan. Yes, we had Chris Rock. Yes, we had the Roots. But Billy Joel? Is the desirability for artists connected to New York city in the aftermath of Sept. 11 so high that Billy Joel - a virtual relic of the 1980s - was our best option? Didn't he disavow pop music in favor of classical piano three years ago? Aren't there other pianists out there - if we so limit ourselves to that instrument - who are more culturally relevant and of broader appeal than "the Piano Man?" I could go on all day listing people, but of note: Elton John? Stevie Wonder? (Yes, those of you who don't know me, those are personal favorites - but the argument still stands.)

"It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in," Joel sings in "Piano Man." Look at "the regular crowd" on the 'Street' any Saturday night - especially at the five bicker clubs. Then look at who "shuffles in" to the "Evening with Billy Joel." Chances are, you won't see too many different faces there - mostly uptown girls and not a whole lot of back-street guys. I bet the USG could tell you why. Dan Wachtell is a philosophy major from Rye, NY. He can be reached at wachtell@princeton.edu.