Everyone listens to music. Music can be a companion, an outlet, a memory – or a soundtrack to your own life. Each of us have certain songs that remind us of a point in our lives. Whether it be the songs you listened to when you were hanging out with your friends, or the songs you danced to with someone you once loved – or the songs that sing of your broken heart – music tells stories for all of us.

Music has always been a very big part of my life. I use music to help me remember the good times in my life, I play certain songs when I want to remember different people – and I even use quotes from songs at the end of a majority of my pennies. Indeed, a good portion of my life can be told through music.

Being a writer, a enjoy a certain type of music. By “certain type”, I don’t mean “Rock”, “Rap” or “Country”. I mean music that tells you a story. Music that has meaning to it and a story behind it.

For example, Billy Joel was siting behind his piano one day when his daughter Alexa approached him and asked, “Daddy, what happens when you die?” At first, he wondered how to answer a question like that. So instead of answering her – he wrote Lullabye – Goodnight My Angel. To me – that’s a song. Not songs with lyrics like, “Tell me whatcha want, whatcha really really want. I wanna uh, I wanna uh, I wanna uh.” As lyrically stimulating as that song is, I prefer songs that have meaning, tell a story – and have an impact on the person that listens to them.

There’s no way I can write a song, because I’m lucky if I can play the air guitar, but I can write a column. It’s my hope that, as the author of this column, that it has an impact on the people that read it. That they walk away feeling like they read something meaningful and from my heart. That’s the kind of music that I like, the music that tells a story rather then tell us that we’re all Livin’ La Vida Loca.

So the next time you turn on the radio, pop in a CD, or download an MP3, try to pay attention to the lyrics of the song your listening to – I bet you’ll hear a great story.