17 Songs That Tell A Story
Musicians are inspired by different things whenever it comes to writing a song. One of the things that can inspire someone is a personal experience in their life. Here is a list of songs that tell a story:
1. TI – Memories Back Then
T.I, Kendrick Lamar and B.O.B all give stories of their experiences with women at the beginning of their careers. T.I shares a story of a girl he was close to back when he was a teenager. She let him and his friends sleep with her multiple times. She would also buy him new sneakers and give him money to buy drugs when he became a drug dealer. She would even hide him whenever the police came looking for the dealers.
B.O.B shares a story of his girlfriend before fame when he was 17. They used to cut class, hang out and smoke weed together. B.O.B’s music career popped off and he started flying across the country doing shows. His girl started getting suspicious of these other girls and going through his phone. One night he drank too much and slept with a random girl he liked without contraception. Two months later she claimed to be pregnant leading to BOB being dumped. It turned out the baby wasn’t his.
Kendrick raps about getting rejected by a girl because he was poor. Fast forward he is very rich thanks to his rap career while the girl that rejected him hasn’t progressed.
2. Ed Sheeran – Don’t
Ed tells a story about one of those situations where someone comes across a very sweet innocent person and then you take that for granted. Stuff unravels and you end up seeing a different side of them. The girl he is singing about ended up cheating on him.
The song is believed to be about Ellie Goulding though it has never been officially confirmed. The alleged guy she cheated on Ed with was singer Naill Horan.
3. Rihanna – Man Down
This is a reggae-influenced song that details the murder of a man who was behaving abusively toward Rihanna. It highlights the turmoil she faced while shooting him. The accompanying music video also depicts the whole story.
The track does have a deeper meaning to it. Speaking to Spin magazine, she had this to say about the track:
The song is about breaking a man’s heart. It’s a very cleverly written song and what I love about it is that it’s not a lyric you’d normally hear a female singing.
4. Eminem feat Ed Sheeran – River
The song details the struggles of a thrilling affair that leads to the girl getting pregnant. It starts out with two people who were having issues with their relationships wanting an escape and revenge. They connect through chats on the internet and ended up having a one-night stand which evolved into a regular thing.
The girl ends up pregnant and her husband finds out. Eminem realizes that his lust has destroyed the girl’s relationship and the abortion of her unborn child.
5. Eminem – When I’m Gone
Eminem shares a personal story about his relationship with his daughter Hailie and how his absence is influencing her, the family and himself. Eminem stated that the song takes you through the journey of the guilt trip he had on an almost daily basis of leaving his family for the stage and all the bad feelings he got for being gone so much.
The song marked the end of Slim Shady. He wanted to put down the mic for a little while after because the stress, pressure and guilt led him to the point where he felt like he cracked. He didn’t know where his career was going.
6. Craig David – 7 Days
This is Craig David’s biggest worldwide hit to date. It topped the charts in the UK and hit the #10 spot in the United States. It ended up getting nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
The track details what happened over 7 days after she met a new girl who piqued his interest. He met her on his was to see his friends as he walked through the subway. She asked him for the time and he asked for her name and number in exchange. They then proceeded to hang out for the rest of the week.
7. Lukas Graham – 7 Years
The Danish group reflects on their life and wonders about growing older. They tell stories of when they were 7,11 and 20. They then proceed to wonder what life would be like when they’re 20 or 60.
8. Taylor Swift – Speak Now
The song is a daydream by Taylor Swift. In it, she crashes her ex’s wedding so he won’t be stuck with a girl who won’t treat him right. The song was inspired by her childhood friend Hayley Williams who had to attend the wedding of her ex-boyfriend and ex-bandmate Josh Farro in April 2010.
In an interview with Yahoo, Taylor had this to say about the song and how she came to write it:
One of my friends, the guy she had been in love with since childhood was marrying this other girl. And my first inclination was to say, ‘Well, are you gonna speak now?’ And then I started thinking about what I would do if I was still in love with someone who was marrying someone who they shouldn’t be marrying. And so I wrote this song about exactly what my game plan would be.
9. Miranda Lambert – The House That Built Me
Miranda reflects on the home she grew up in and how it helped shape her into the person she is today. Despite someone already living in the house, she went ahead to explore different sections of the house and share what she experienced at different points.
Miranda expected that an experience like this might be cathartic and help heal her old wounds.
10. Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
The song tells the tale of a young girl who claims to be the mother of Michael Jackson’s alleged son. In Michael’s autobiography, he stated that there was never a real Billie Jean but the girl in the song is a composite of people his brothers have been plagued with over the years. His original inspiration was just wanting to write a song with a great bass hook.
The track peaked at the number 1 spot in several countries including the US.
11. Carrie Underwood – Two Black Cadillacs
She tells the story of two women who when they realize they are both dating the same guy, set aside their differences and decide to take care of things together by murdering the man who played them. One of them is the mistress and the other his wife. The found out about each other after the wife found a strange number in her husband’s phone.
12. Ed Sheeran – The A Team
The song focuses on a girl named Angel that Ed spoke to when did a gig at a homeless shelter. During the early years of his career, Ed Sheeran was homeless at some point. In interview with Billboard, Ed shared this about how he came up with the song:
“The A Team” came from an experience I had when I did a gig at a homeless shelter. I was 18 at the time and kind of quite naïve. So, I was a bit taken aback by some of the stories that I heard.
I got home that night and I just wrote a lot of the lyrics. I wanted to write it so it sounded kind of upbeat, so you wouldn’t really know what it’s about, because it’s quite a dark subject.
The song follows the narrator reminiscing about old memories and how much has changed since growing older.
14. Taylor Swift – Story Of Us
The story was based on the time when Taylor Swift encountered an ex-boyfriend at the 2010 CMT Music Awards. Many speculated that it was John Mayer. The two ignored each other at the event and this inspired her to come up with the song. She felt like she was standing alone in a crowded room. They both acted like they didn’t care and chatted up the people next to them. Afterward, she just felt empty because it was like they were fighting a silent war of pretending they don’t care that the other was there.
Speaking to USA Today, Taylor said this about the song:
‘The Story of Us’ is about running into someone I had been in a relationship with at an awards show, and we were seated a few seats away from each other. I just wanted to say to him, ‘Is this killing you? Because it’s killing me.’ But I didn’t. But I couldn’t. Because we both had these silent shields up. I went home and I sat there at the kitchen table and I said to my mom, ‘I felt like I was standing alone in a crowded room.’ Then I got up and ran into my bedroom, as she’s seen me do many times. And she probably assumed I had come up with a line in the song.
15. Taylor Swift – Nobody, No Crime
This is an imaginative take on Taylor Swift’s part on a true crime story featuring HAIM band as the center of a missing persons case after being cheated on by her husband. She stated that she was inspired by her obsession with true crime podcasts/documentaries.
16. Brad Paisley – Whiskey Lullaby
The hit song was composed by Bill Anderson and Jon Randall. The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts and #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was able to win the 2005 Country Music Association Song of the Year award and is one of Paisley’s three songs certified Platinum by RIAA.
The song tells a story of a soldier who returned from deployment only to find out that his wife has been unfaithful to him while he was away. This breaks him completely thus leading to him turning to out-of-control drinking to drown his heartbreak. However, alcoholism leads to his eventual death. His ex-girlfriend feels guilty for being responsible for the heartache that caused the death of her ex. She is broken by this and develops a drinking problem which led to her death.
17. Ludacris – Runaway Love
This is the third single off Ludacris’ fifth album Release Therapy. It takes us through three stories of different young girls suffering in different domestic situations.
The first is Lisa who is a victim of a junkie mother who brings home different men and an absent father. The second is named Nicole whose dad is an alcoholic and also beats her. She had a friend named Stacy who got shot in a drive-by shooting hence leaving her without a support system. The third is Erica, a young girl dating a much older boyfriend. She ends up pregnant but her parents are too poor to take care of the baby.
All these different girls decide to run away from home as a way to escape their problems.