Billy Joel — Big Shot

JUL 01 1979 · 12:00

Billy Joel — Big Shot (1979) Director: Steve Cohen & Michael Negrin Era: Late 1970s Mainstream Rock Video Era (1979) - Pre-MTV promotional clip period; videotaped performance-driven visuals aligned with the rise of rock as pop spectacle and New York's nouveau riche cultural moment High curatorial value as a confirmed, sourced pre-MTV promotional clip from one of the defining figures of mainstream 1970s rock, directed by two collaborators with long and verifiable ties to Billy Joel's visual output. The video's quantitative profile — extreme slow editing pace, warm color temperature, low motion — makes it a textbook specimen of late-1970s performance-video conventions. Its cultural content, referencing Manhattan's late-1970s social excess, adds documentary value beyond the musical performance itself. Context: Released in early 1979, 'Big Shot' arrived as Billy Joel was consolidating his status as a major mainstream rock figure following the breakthrough of The Stranger (1977). The video captures the cultural milieu of late-1970s Manhattan — satirizing the excesses of the nouveau riche party scene, referencing venues like Elaine's restaurant and fashion designer Halston — at a moment when New York's celebrity social world was at a peak of visibility. The song's sarcastic lyric voice, aimed at a socialite's self-destructive excess, reflected broader anxieties about upward mobility and performative wealth as the Me Decade closed. The video itself functions as a document of the pre-MTV promotional clip format: long takes, performance-forward staging, and minimal narrative, designed for broadcast and promotional use rather than cable rotation. Director notes: Co-directed by Steve Cohen and Michael Negrin, as confirmed by both IMDB (tt11742340) and IMVDb (ID: 249611997592). The video was released in 1979 to accompany the single from the album 52nd Street. Cohen's production company (Steven Cohen Productions) lists 'Big Shot' among his directorial credits alongside other Joel videos. Negrin's IMVDb profile lists 'Big Shot' (1979) among his Billy Joel music video collaborations, which also include 'My Life' (1978), 'Honesty' (1979), 'Uptown Girl' (1983), 'Tell Her About It' (1983), and 'The Longest Time' (1984). The video is notably described by fan sources as one of the first instances of Joel performing away from the piano in a visual context. The quantitative profile — five scene changes, 43.85s average shot length, low motion score of 4.06 — is entirely consistent with the slow-paced, performance-oriented videotape productions Cohen and Negrin were making in this period.