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THE DEATH OF STORYTELLING IN THE MODERN MUSIC SPACE
Art | Written: Ruvarashe Gweredza
10.07.2025
Where did the story go?
In a world plagued by miscommunication, music has remained a universal language. More than just entertainment, music has played a crucial role in preserving history. Before pen and papyrus, let alone social media, it was rhythm that moved us.
Whether through African griots or Celtic folk traditions, melody has always served as a thread that keeps communities connected.
Beautifully portrayed in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, we’re now left to wonder: has our current sonic landscape forgotten these roots?
We’ve gained speed, but lost depth. The stories haven’t vanished; they’ve simply been compressed. It leaves us asking, are we listening for the beat or the lyrics?
Amid this loss, there’s a rising dynamism in sound engineering. As production quality improves, if it’s the beat we’re drawn to, then has the producer become the new artist?
We often forget that the songs we return to, the ones we call timeless, are the ones that had something to say. J. Cole’s Wet Dreams, a coming-of-age tale; Taylor Swift’s chapters of love and loss. These weren’t just tracks, they were worlds. Storytelling made those songs unforgettable.
In the 2010s, music felt like cinema. Adele mourned, Kendrick narrated, and R&B slow burns left soul prints. These songs didn’t just ask us to listen, they asked us to feel. We’d be lying if we said every track from the past was deep, but something has undeniably shifted. The stories are fading. The sound remains, but it’s the substance that’s now in question. We can only hope it doesn’t get compressed into nothingness.