Me, too. I have never been able to figure out the popularity of either performer. Pretentious, vulgar, and cliche, both of them.
To be honest, I did like Billy Joel’s “tribute to doo-wop” period, but only because he was not writing in his own style, but in a Sha-Na-Na pastiche.
You have to be a real person to write real music — which is why Texas is the greatest music state.
NY would have something to say about that. Tin Pan Alley and all.