Song Stories: Music That Shaped Our Identities and Changed Our Lives

Songs become a part of the story of our lives. Their lyrics linger inside of us. We recall those words, but what we remember isn't what they meant to the person who wrote them. It's what they mean to us. We relate their lyrics back to the events that have happened in our lives. What you'll read in this book are personal accounts of how people's lives have been impacted by specific songs. Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" set Cortney Harding's romantic notions of adulthood, The Velvet Underground's "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" played one night at a friend's place and changed Marc Ruxin's musical tastes, and Coldplay's "Lovers in Japan" reminds Caitlin Teibloom of a college breakup and who she became through that experience. This book will deepen your understanding of music. It'll extend your interpretation of a song beyond what it means to you to how the song has been experienced by another and the meaning it has created in his or her life. Reading each story and playing the song will allow you to hear what music sounds like through ears other than your own.

Songs become a part of the story of our lives. Their lyrics linger inside of us. We recall those words, but what we remember isn't what they meant to the person who wrote them. It's what they mean to us. We relate their lyrics back to the events that have happened in our lives. What you'll read in this book are personal accounts of how people's lives have been impacted by specific songs. Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" set Cortney Harding's romantic notions of adulthood, The Velvet Underground's "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" played one night at a friend's place and changed Marc Ruxin's musical tastes, and Coldplay's "Lovers in Japan" reminds Caitlin Teibloom of a college breakup and who she became through that experience. This book will deepen your understanding of music. It'll extend your interpretation of a song beyond what it means to you to how the song has been experienced by another and the meaning it has created in his or her life. Reading each story and playing the song will allow you to hear what music sounds like through ears other than your own.

Kyle Bylin is the author of Promised Land: Youth Culture, Disruptive Startups, and the Social Music Revolution and Divergent Streams: Reflections and Explorations of the Modern Music Industry. He has conducted user research for SoundHound Inc. and Live Nation Labs, as well as managed charts at Billboard and supervised editing at Hypebot. He has been featured as a source in news stories by The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Fader, NPR, Marketplace Money, and MTV News. He currently lives and works in Fargo, North Dakota.