# Music that Tells a Story By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-09-30 Today's popular music rarely tells a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, it's about the rhythm, a catchy chorus, a feeling, or dancing. Music like this has always existed as a form of entertainment, but there are also periods where music was about telling a story. Here, the words mattered and were designed to be listened to. It is interesting to consider what causes the popular music of a generation or region to be focused on entertainment or storytelling. I hypothesize that storytelling music is popular when a region or population tries to make sense of their existence. In other words, when the struggle is real for them. If music is about entertainment all the time, either things are going great, or the population is actively ignoring the inevitable suffering going on all around them. Think how social media is mostly about showing everyone how great one's life is versus all the struggles of reality. In many ways, data reporting and visualizations are the same way within organizations. Some organizations use the data to make sense of what is going on, but many want the data visualizations to entertain them. The focus on software to create increasingly dynamic and entertaining visuals says everything about the mental state of organizations today. Entertainment is a fun and necessary distraction in moderation, but eventually, one needs to take a stab at making sense of it all. When we share our stories, we act in solidarity with those who are also trying to figure things out. #### Related Items [[Storytelling]] [[Data]] [[Music]] [[Popular]] [[Solidarity]] [[Entertainment]]