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Amanda Burton

Nate Hellmers

ENG 1201.B52

4 April 2021

Does the “Uptown Girl” Really Get a Choice?

“Turn-up for the books,” is a British phrase that means “a surprising or unexpected event”

according to Cambridge Dictionary. This phrase is quoted at the end of Westlife’s music video of

“Uptown Girl,” humorously summarizing both Billy Joel’s original version of the song (1983)

and Westlife’s parody (2001). Billy Joel’s video depicts an auto mechanic daydreaming about

and winning a high-class woman, the “uptown girl.” Westlife’s version focuses on the uptown

girl’s choice between the honest burger joint staff and the gentry restaurant customers she

normally associates with. While Westlife attempts to redeem women’s voice, both Billy Joel and

Westlife’s music videos incidentally objectify women.

From the first female college graduate in 1840 to suffrage in 1919 to the first female vice-

president in 2021, the past century or two has held astonishing achievements advancing equality

for women. While women, lawmakers, and others were working together to slowly rid the

country of sex discrimination, Billy Joel was writing his song, “Uptown Girl.” His music video is

set in the 80s at an auto repair shop. The main character, Billy Joel, a mechanic, sings about hope

in finding a girlfriend from uptown. A lady from the ritziest part of town then arrives in her

chauffeured Rolls-Royce. Dressed for a gala, she dances alongside the mechanics. She ends up

riding away on a motorcycle with Joel, presumably having assented to be his girlfriend.

Eighteen years later, following more progress in women’s equality, Westlife released a

parody of the Billy Joel classic. This music video, set in a burger joint, begins by showing
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pompous, rich men ridiculing the restaurant and employees. One of the portentous crowd plays

“Uptown Girl” on the community jukebox. With the beginning of the lyrics, the band starts

singing. The “uptown girl” gracefully arrives, causing a record scratch pause as she turns every

head in the restaurant. Though she is there to meet the rich men, she ends up leaving with the

burger-flipping band members, abandoning her astonished “friends” to a dark, closed

establishment.

Though the lyrics declare that “she’s got a choice,” Billy Joel’s music video predominately

portrays the “uptown girl” as a prize to be won. The video opens with a shot displaying a

billboard for Uptown Cosmetics featuring a posing model alongside the auto shop sign,

foreshadowing the tension between fantasy and reality. As the song begins, Billy Joel is seen

singing in front of a bathing suit model poster on the wall, another metaphor for the hopes and

dreams of the singer. One of the top models of the 80s, Christie Brinkley, portrays the “uptown

girl.” This further emphasizes the perfection Joel dreamed to obtain. His music video speaks to

hopes fulfilled as he rides away with his prize, but Billy Joel unquestionably depicted his

“uptown girl” as an object to be attained.

Westlife attempts to empower the woman by rendering her a choice between classes. Again,

the lyrics state that “she’s got a choice,” but when compared to how comically haughty the rich

men were portrayed, the “uptown girl” would have looked a fool for choosing them over the

sportive “downtown men.” The rich men deride the restaurant at the beginning of the Westlife

music video, “slumming in a place called Blonde’s.” As the sequence continues, the men act

obnoxiously while waiting to be served by drinking champagne, smoking cigars, and forcefully

shaking the gumball machine to extricate a piece. Since Westlife’s video produces an

exaggerated portrayal of the upper-class man and the band characterizes the ideal suiter, this
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version draws a distinct line between the type of men the "uptown girl" is choosing between. If

she had chosen to remain with her uptown colleagues, she would have seemed foolish and

brainless. Ironically, the “uptown girl” then becomes the object of hopes realized, corresponding

with Billy Joel’s original theme.

Both conclusions of “Uptown Girl” are a “turn-up for the books” as the models let their hair

down and leave with their contrasting class. These pathos-filled videos captivate with Billy

Joel’s longings and Westlife’s upper-class barbarians. They additionally contain hints of ethos

and logos shown by the confidence of delivery and the logic that she’ll choose a downtown man

because “she’s getting tired of her high-class toys” (billyjoelVEVO). The audience of the first is

Billy Joel's fan base, and, more specifically, those who relate to fantasizing about better things.

The audience of the second is much the same, but it also appeals to those who have enjoyed the

song for almost 2 decades. While Westlife’s music video attempts to update the message for the

modern, egalitarian day by presenting a choice, both versions fail to give a comprehensive say to

the “uptown girl.” In fact, they actualized their fantasies at the expense of objectifying women.

Society still has work to do if this idea of relating females to trophies is still ingrained in the

minds of our artists today.

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Works Cited

billyjoelVEVO. “Billy Joel - Uptown Girl (Official Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 2 Oct. 2009,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuMWrfXG4E.

“Turn-up for the Book(s).” TURN-UP FOR THE BOOK(S) | Definition in the Cambridge

English Dictionary, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/turn-up-for-the-book-s.

westlifeVEVO. “Westlife - Uptown Girl (Official Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 17 Feb. 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HTexqxo1og.