In just around three minutes, a good pop story song gives us an abbreviated account of a love affair, or the details of an adventure (or misadventure), or the particulars of a personal tragedy that wasn’t our own, but was something that touched our soul. The first twenty or so years of the Rock and Roll Era (from the mid-1950s to the mid-70s) were, what could be, the heyday of the story song. Singers and songwriters of the 1950s to the 1970s made sure that as soon as you got one story song out of your head, another one took its place—forming a compendium of musical experiences that allowed you to see the world a bit differently. Listen to Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Loretta Lynn, Ray Peterson, Mark Dinning, Leslie Gore, Shangri-Las, Jeannie C. Riley, Creedence Clearwater Revival, David Geddes, Andrew Gold, Michael Jackson, Tracy Chapman, Carrie underwood, Paramore, Panic at the Disco, and lots of other singers and musicians who help you discover another side of life.