He especially viewed new wave as akin to older genres such as power pop and rock and roll, commenting in an interview with Rolling Stone that "new wave songs, it seems, can only be about two and a half minutes long... only a certain number of instruments can be played on the record - usually a very few... only a certain amount of production is allowed or can be heard... the sound has to be limited to what you can hear in a garage... a return to that sound is all that’s going on now.

According to drummer Liberty DeVitto in an interview, the sound engineer for the song had him tune his snare drum extremely low so that it would "flop" when he played it.

[13] Cash Box said that Joel "throws a few slyly humorous stones...at the present new wave fad" and that the song includes "a torrid sax break.

"[14] Record World said that "Joel surveys the current rock scene with sharp vocal phrasing & a pulsating rhythm, driving home his pointed lyrical observations.

[10] "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a parody of the song entitled "It's Still Billy Joel to Me" in 1980, popularized on the Dr. Demento radio program.