"Musicians now find themselves in the unlikely position of being legitimate. At least the IRS thinks so"

Billy Joel's quote, "Musicians now discover themselves in the unlikely position of being legitimate. At least the internal revenue service believes so", touches on the progressing understanding and recognition of musicians as specialists within society, particularly under the lens of tax policy.

Historically, musicians were frequently viewed as outliers, taking part in their craft more for enthusiasm than for revenue. The romantic idea of the "starving artist" painted a photo of musicians surviving on the fringe of economic and social legitimacy, struggling to stabilize their imaginative pursuits with financial stability. However, in the last few years, as music has ended up being a robust industry producing considerable income through performances, recordings, and digital platforms, artists have actually progressively been acknowledged as business owners and experts in their own right.

Billy Joel's amusing remark suggests a shift in perception-- from the margins to the mainstream. The referral to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) indicates that artists have actually acquired enough financial trustworthiness to be formally acknowledged as legitimate entities, taxed like any other expert. By generating the IRS, Joel underscores the paradox that authenticity and recognition typically come through monetary types and tax commitments. The acknowledgement indicates that artists' earnings has reached a limit significant enough to attract the attention of tax authorities, which is both a mark of success and a required bureaucratic problem.

Joel's comment can also be seen as a nod to the changing landscape of the music market, where digital platforms have actually equalized music circulation and provided artists with new avenues to monetize their work, more strengthening their status as genuine factors to the economy. This shift challenges the conventional stereotype of the musician as financially unstable, marking a brand-new age in which their craft is appreciated in both artistic and financial terms.

In essence, Joel highlights a wider societal change-- the improvement of the artist's role from being on the periphery to becoming a crucial part of the cultural and financial material. The mention of the IRS functions as both a metaphor for reliability and a pointer of the often-overlooked financial complexities artists browse, indicating their full integration into the formal economy.