Deconstructing “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: 1989 vs. 2023

Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” came out in 1989, but its structure still feels built for the internet age. It is a list song, a history song and a stress song. It moves through names, wars, scandals, books, movies, athletes, assassinations, diseases, inventions and cultural crazes with no time to explain them.

Fall Out Boy’s 2023 version uses the format. The references changed, but the feeling remains: the world is on fire, and each generation inherits the blaze.

At the end, we list some of the omissions.

To compare the two songs, each topic has been placed into one category only. Some references could fit more than one, but for this analysis, each one gets one slot.

The six categories are:

Category

Politics / Government

War / Terror / Global Conflict

Entertainment / Media / Celebrity

Sports

Science / Technology / Space

Social Change / Public Crisis

Category totals

Rank	1989 Billy Joel version	Count	2023 Fall Out Boy version	Count
1	Entertainment / Media / Celebrity	41	Entertainment / Media / Celebrity	23
2	Politics / Government	25	Social Change / Public Crisis	20
3	War / Terror / Global Conflict	20	Science / Technology / Space	14
4	Social Change / Public Crisis	15	Politics / Government	11
5	Science / Technology / Space	11	War / Terror / Global Conflict	9
6	Sports	8	Sports	8

The 1989 song has 120 topics in this breakdown. The 2023 song has 85.

Entertainment ranks first in both songs. Both songs are built around public memory, and public memory often attaches itself to celebrities, movies, television, books, songs, scandals and sports heroes.

But the rest of the ranking changes.

The Billy Joel song has politics and global conflict right behind entertainment. The Fall Out Boy song has social crisis and technology behind entertainment. So we're dealing with two different kinds of anxiety:

The 1989 version is a Cold War and mass-media song.

The 2023 version is an internet-age and public-crisis song.

1. Entertainment / Media / Celebrity

Billy Joel song (1989)

Doris Day

Johnnie Ray

"South Pacific"

Walter Winchell

Television

Marilyn Monroe

Brando

"The King and I"

"The Catcher in the Rye"

Liberace

Santayana

Goodbye

Prokofiev

Toscanini

"Rock Around the Clock"

James Dean

Davy Crockett

Peter Pan

Elvis Presley

Disneyland

Bardot

Princess Grace

"Peyton Place"

Pasternak

Kerouac

"Bridge on the River Kwai"

Buddy Holly

"Ben-Hur"

Hula-hoops

Payola

Chubby Checker

"Psycho"

Hemingway

"Stranger in a Strange Land"

Dylan

"Lawrence of Arabia"

British Beatlemania

Woodstock

Punk rock

"Wheel of Fortune"

Rock-and-roller cola wars

Fall Out Boy song (2023)

"Captain Planet"

Kurt Cobain

"Pokémon"

"Harry Potter"

"Twilight"

Michael Jackson dies

Robert Downey Jr.

"Iron Man"

Spielberg

Balloon Boy

Fyre Fest

"Black Parade"

Kanye West and Taylor Swift

"Stranger Things"

"Tiger King"

Meghan Markle

"Metroid"

"SpongeBob"

Woodstock ’99

Keaton, Batman

Tom DeLonge and aliens

"Avatar"

Prince dies

Entertainment is the largest category in both songs.

In the 1989 version, the entertainment list has old Hollywood, Broadway, early television, rock and roll, literary figures and mass-market spectacle. Doris Day, Marilyn Monroe, Brando, Elvis Presley, James Dean, Disneyland, "Psycho," Dylan, British Beatlemania, Woodstock and punk rock all sit in the same cultural chain.

That song shows entertainment becoming a common language. Television is part of the list because television changed how people saw politics, celebrity, sports, war and scandal.

The 2023 version has a different media world. "Pokémon," "Harry Potter," "Twilight," "Iron Man," "Stranger Things," "Tiger King," "SpongeBob," "Avatar" and Fyre Fest come from a world of franchises, platforms, viral moments and fan cultures.

The 1989 song has icons. The 2023 song has ecosystems.

Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson and Prince bring death into the entertainment category. Kanye West and Taylor Swift bring celebrity conflict. Tom DeLonge brings the strange overlap of rock stardom and UFO culture.

In both songs, entertainment is part of how people remember the fire.

2. Politics / Government

Billy Joel song (1989)

Harry Truman

Joe McCarthy

Richard Nixon

Eisenhower

England’s got a new queen

Joseph Stalin

Malenkov

Nasser

Rockefeller

Roy Cohn

Juan Peron

Khrushchev

Zhou En-Lai

Charles de Gaulle

Castro

Syngman Rhee

Kennedy

Pope Paul

British politician sex

JFK blown away

Richard Nixon back again

Watergate

Begin

Reagan

Ayatollah’s in Iran

Fall Out Boy song (2023)

Arab Spring

Cambridge Analytica

Kim Jong Un

Obama

QAnon

Trump gets impeached twice

Boris Johnson

Brexit

Shinzō Abe blown away

Bush v. Gore

The Queen dies

Politics is the second-largest category in the 1989 song, with 25 topics. The names are often leaders: Truman, Nixon, Eisenhower, Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser, Khrushchev, Zhou En-Lai, Charles de Gaulle, Castro, Syngman Rhee, Kennedy, Begin, Reagan and the Ayatollah.

The category also includes political scandal and institutional drama: Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, British politician sex, JFK blown away and Watergate.

The 1989 political world feels built around states, leaders and governments. Power has faces. The faces are presidents, dictators, prime ministers, monarchs, senators, clerics and party figures.

The 2023 political list is smaller, with 11 topics, but it has a different kind of pressure. Obama, Trump gets impeached twice, Boris Johnson, Brexit and Bush v. Gore point to elections, leadership and political legitimacy. Cambridge Analytica and QAnon move politics into data, platforms and conspiracy culture.

Kim Jong Un keeps dictatorship in the frame. Shinzō Abe blown away brings assassination into the category. The Queen dies marks the end of a monarch whose reign crossed much of the period covered by both songs.

The 1989 version treats politics as a map of world power. The 2023 version treats politics as a crisis of trust.

3. War / Terror / Global Conflict

Billy Joel song (1989)

Red China

North Korea

South Korea

Rosenbergs

Panmunjom

Communist Bloc

Dien Bien Phu falls

Budapest

Trouble in the Suez

Lebanon

U-2

Belgians in the Congo

Eichmann

Berlin

Bay of Pigs invasion

Ho Chi Minh

Palestine

Terror on the airline

Russians in Afghanistan

China’s under martial law

Fall Out Boy song (2023)

Oklahoma City bomb

Crimean Peninsula

More war in Afghanistan

Unabomber

Bombing Boston Marathon

War on Terror

ISIS

World Trade

Second plane

The 1989 song has 20 topics in War / Terror / Global Conflict. The category is shaped by the Cold War and its related fronts: Red China, North Korea, South Korea, the Rosenbergs, Panmunjom, Communist Bloc, Dien Bien Phu, Budapest, Suez, U-2, Berlin, Bay of Pigs, Ho Chi Minh, Palestine, Russians in Afghanistan and China under martial law.

The list also includes Eichmann, which ties the postwar era to the Holocaust and its legal aftermath.

The Fall Out Boy version has nine topics in this category. The references are fewer, but they carry the weight of domestic terror, 9/11 and post-9/11 war: Oklahoma City bomb, Unabomber, Bombing Boston Marathon, War on Terror, ISIS, World Trade and second plane. Crimean Peninsula and more war in Afghanistan keep state conflict in the song.

The Billy Joel version often frames global conflict through ideology and state power. The Fall Out Boy version frames conflict through terror, aftermath and televised trauma.

The 1989 song’s conflict map runs through communism, decolonization and Cold War flashpoints.

The 2023 song’s conflict map runs through terrorism, failed safety and wars that do not feel finished.

4. Social Change / Public Crisis

Billy Joel song (1989)

Alabama

Little Rock

Starkweather homicide

Children of thalidomide

Mafia

Ole Miss

Malcolm X

Birth control

Heavy metal suicide

Foreign debts

Homeless vets

AIDS

Crack

Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shore

Fall Out Boy song (2023)

L.A. riots

Rodney King

Earthquakes

Iceland volcano

Fukushima, Japan

Explosion, Lebanon

Bobbitt, John

Polar bears got no ice

Ever Given

Suez

Sandy Hook

Columbine

Sandra Bland

Tamir Rice

George Floyd

Golden State Killer got caught

Texas failed electric grid

Climate change

White rhino goes extinct

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

This is one of the clearest changes between the two songs.

The 1989 version has 15 topics in Social Change / Public Crisis. The list includes civil rights flashpoints, crime, medical disaster, public health, drugs, debt, veteran homelessness and urban fear.

Alabama, Little Rock, Ole Miss and Malcolm X place civil rights at the center of the period. Children of thalidomide and birth control bring medicine and sexuality into public life. AIDS, crack, homeless vets, Bernie Goetz and hypodermics on the shore push the song into the anxieties of the 1980s.

The 2023 version has 20 topics in this category, making it the second-largest category in that song.

L.A. riots, Rodney King, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice and George Floyd are tied to race, policing and protest. Sandy Hook and Columbine are mass shooting references. Climate change, polar bears, white rhino goes extinct and Great Pacific Garbage Patch bring environmental loss into the center of the song. Texas failed electric grid adds infrastructure collapse. Fukushima, Japan, earthquakes, Iceland volcano, explosion in Lebanon, Ever Given and Suez add disaster, blockage and system failure.

The 1989 song has social crisis as part of the timeline.

The 2023 song puts social crisis near the center of the timeline.

5. Science / Technology / Space

Billy Joel song (1989)

Studebaker

H-bomb

Vaccine

Dacron

Einstein

Sputnik

Space monkey

Edsel is a no-go

John Glenn

Moonshot

Sally Ride

Fall Out Boy song (2023)

Deep fakes

MySpace

Monsanto

GMOs

Nuclear accident

Y2K

Burj Khalifa

Fermi paradox

YouTube killed MTV

Elon Musk

Jeff Bezos

Mars rover

Self-driving electric cars

SSRIs

The 1989 song has 11 topics in Science / Technology / Space. They include the H-bomb, vaccine, Dacron, Einstein, Sputnik, space monkey, John Glenn, moonshot and Sally Ride. Studebaker and Edsel is a no-go are placed here because they represent industrial and consumer technology in the category system used for this comparison.

This category in the 1989 song has a clear atomic-age and space-age feel. It includes fear, invention, medicine, consumer manufacturing and national achievement.

The 2023 song has 14 topics in the category. The range is broader: deep fakes, MySpace, Monsanto, GMOs, nuclear accident, Y2K, Burj Khalifa, Fermi paradox, YouTube killed MTV, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mars rover, self-driving electric cars and SSRIs.

The newer version connects technology to platforms, billionaires, medicine, vehicles, architecture, food systems, artificial media and space exploration.

The 1989 song’s science category points to bombs, vaccines and spaceflight.

The 2023 song’s science category points to digital life, platform power, biotech, tech billionaires and the blurred line between reality and simulation.

6. Sports

Billy Joel song (1989)

Joe DiMaggio

Sugar Ray

Marciano

Campanella

Brooklyn’s got a winning team

Mickey Mantle

California baseball

Liston beats Patterson

Fall Out Boy song (2023)

Tiger Woods

Cubs go all the way again

Michael Phelps

LeBron James

Venus and Serena

Michael Jordan, 23

Michael Jordan, 45

Kaepernick

Sports has eight topics in each song.

In the 1989 version, the names come from baseball and boxing: Joe DiMaggio, Sugar Ray, Marciano, Campanella, Brooklyn’s got a winning team, Mickey Mantle, California baseball and Liston beats Patterson. These are midcentury sports references tied to newspapers, radio, television and civic identity.

The 2023 version has Tiger Woods, the Cubs, Michael Phelps, LeBron James, Venus and Serena, Michael Jordan, 23, Michael Jordan, 45 and Kaepernick.

These are not just athletes. In the song’s category system, they are sports references, but several also connect to fame, branding, race, protest and global media.

Sports stayed the same in count. The meaning changed. The 1989 song uses sports as part of the postwar American public square. The 2023 song uses sports as part of fame, identity and debate.

What the category breakdown shows

The 1989 song is led by entertainment, politics and global conflict.

The 2023 song is led by entertainment, social crisis and technology.

That difference is the main finding.

Billy Joel’s version reflects a world shaped by presidents, dictators, Cold War pressure, civil rights, nuclear fear, television, literature, Broadway, rock and early celebrity culture.

Fall Out Boy’s version reflects a world shaped by franchises, internet platforms, mass shootings, climate fear, conspiracy movements, billionaire tech figures, viral scandals, policing protests and post-9/11 trauma.

The original song feels like history coming through newspapers, television and radio.

The 2023 version feels like history coming through feeds, clips, alerts and comment sections.

Both songs say the fire was already burning.

The category breakdown shows what kind of fire each era recognized first.

Omissions? There's a Few

The biggest omission from the 2023 version is COVID-19. Fall Out Boy names "Tiger King," QAnon, Ever Given, climate change, Trump’s impeachments, George Floyd, the Queen’s death and 9/11, but not the pandemic that changed work, school, travel, public health, politics and trust in institutions. The absence is even stranger because "Tiger King" appears in the song, and that show became part of early pandemic culture. COVID is not the only omission. January 6, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession, smartphones, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, same-sex marriage and MeToo are also missing. But COVID is the gap that most changes how the 2023 song reads.