Top 100 Music Story Quotes
#1. The great composers I worked with along the way, I always felt they were filmmakers more than composers. They would talk about the story rather than the music.
Steven Price
#2. In business, you can have one massive success that earns $50 million overnight, and that's it. You're successful. End of story. But in the music business, you have to keep on doing it.
Noel Gallagher
#3. I'm not sure I ever try to make a case for the music. I mean, sometimes the music isn't even that good. I just tell the band's stories; if I describe the music, it's to explain how it moved the overall story along.
Michael Azerrad
#4. The back story of a songwriter isn't important to me - I don't listen to music needing to know who the guy is.
Jakob Dylan
#5. I think there's a story inside every one of us and we all have different talents that allow us to tell our story whether that be through words, art, crafts, music or simply by sharing our life with those we love. Don't let your story go untold.
Susan Rushmore
#6. The reward is that you can actually create a world separate from reality with a story, actors, music, and camera design. When it works it can entertain, move people and teach us all.
Colleen Atwood
#7. To me, a sex scene in a movie generally means a gratuitous scene that doesn't serve the story but gives a kind of excuse - we've got these two actors, we want to see them naked, so let's bring in the music and the soft light.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
#8. You can't be like pop stars, but you can be part of their story. You can be their fan.
Simon Cheshire
#9. It's about the stories. If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story, and all kinds of sonic goodness - sonic goodies.
Frank Ocean
#10. I may not have written the song, but I could add my story to it. Everyone out there could. That was what made music so powerful.
Tara Kelly
#11. I like to write from my life and the relationships that make it up. I think its important to use music to change people's moods. I try to write my story in a way that people can take for themselves and their own life.
Hoodie Allen
#12. I also able to graciously survive the PhD from the grace, which comes from prayer, bible reading, extensive story reading, fasting, fellowship, listen to music, daily dance and sacred writing.
Lailah Gifty Akita
#13. I think there is a big question in how much music a film needs - a lot of films are overloaded for my taste, so that the story can't carry its own weight.
Volker Bertelmann
#14. The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with - nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do. Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they can add up to the story of a life.
Rob Sheffield
#15. A music born among children of slaves is like an orphan: it will never know its real parents, will never hear the full visceral story of its birth.
Carolina De Robertis
#16. Maybe there's a different story when it comes to hip-hop or different genres, but as far as rock music goes, I think there is a sort of fear of saying things people might be apt to criticize. Our band is the opposite of that.
Conor Oberst
#17. Each stroke of your fingers is a different word that describes the story. By itself it's meaningless, but - " I pushed down on a few fingers helping her play a few notes. "String them together and you have a melody. You have a story. So, Saylor, what story do you want to tell?
Rachel Van Dyken
#18. Jewish comedy doesn't come out of nothing. Jewish music doesn't come out of nothing ... I don't want to be part of a story where Jews are just victims or bullies - and I'm not saying that's what the Israelis are.
Simon Schama
#19. Michael Bloomfields' musical understanding was broad and deep, and he knew how to turn that understanding into communication .. his influence was phenomenal ... his story is about those kinds of things and about the people he knew and the audiences he thrilled and the times he had ...
Mark Naftalin
#20. It is only in his music, which Americans are able to admire because a protective sentimentality limits their understanding of it, that the Negro in America has been able to tell his story.
James Baldwin
#21. The power of classical music turns my words into fire.
A.D. Posey
#22. Because I see
A rainstorm in June
Just before the sun
The black of night
Just before the stars
And, girl, I see your ghost
Just before our dawn
Laura Miller
#23. I'm a music storyteller and collaborator. I hear character, location, and story as music. For me a score is there to both heighten the story and to actually tell the story with the unique emotional and narrative powers of music.
David Raiklen
#25. Even when I do commercials, I try to tell a story about the product. With music, I try to tell the story of the person's struggle for success. And I believe every word I say. I never read anything on the air I don't believe in. I think people sense that about me, and they respond to it.
Casey Kasem
#27. Some of the ideas are kind of inspired by the songs, and I always want to use music to tell the story and give the movie a certain kind of mood. That's always essential to me.
Wes Anderson
#28. The kiss: It felt like light rising through them. It was a memory and it was a promise, an enigma and a wonder. It was music. A conversation. A flight. A true story. And it was theirs.
Martha Brockenbrough
#29. I think going from doing TV and straight plays to Shakespeare is weird enough because you have this heightened language, and you are telling a story through metric poetry. But I think music is that place beyond poetry.
Tamsin Greig
#30. The third person is another pair of eyes. The third person is a presentiment of God ... a way to tell the story.
It's a box for the endless music that's there between people, waiting to be played.
Ali Smith
#31. Music does not carry you along. You have to carry it along strictly by your ability to really just focus on that little small kernel of emotion or story.
Debbie Harry
#32. A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.
Robert McKee
#33. I have to be my own artist. I need the world to know who I am, especially for music. When it comes to acting, that is a whole other story. I have no complaints; that's a team effort. It's not just me, it's everyone. But when it comes to music, it is solo; that's all me.
Mitchel Musso
#34. There's something special about working with picture and adding music to picture that really takes you to a whole new level. It's always the director's picture first, and I'm there to help tell the story.
Lior Ron
#35. I'm hungry for purpose. I'm looking for still that reason that I bought a guitar and started a band, to fulfill a purpose, to manifest destiny as to who I am and why I am the way I am, and what I do. I think it's still about the music, the song and the story.
Billy Ray Cyrus
#36. The four of us got back into the car. In an instant, I distinctly heard a "soundless music". It was the melody of friendship, the sound of a perfectly tuned quartet who got together by chance, four hearts playing in harmony.
You Jin
#37. Ayn Rand called her novella Anthem a "hymn to man's ego." My approach to Anthem the play was to provide the story a further dimension through music and sound. The work is now larger than a hymn. It's really "spoken opera."
Jeff Britting
#38. You don't always want to be using the music in a way to express ideas inherent that are on the screen. You might want to work more around the fringes of the story, and work more with the subtext, and add more depth to the story through the use of music.
Howard Shore
#39. Each one of us had a little story to tell and each recording was based on that. Lou played all of the music but we both sort of kicked around some cords during the writing phase.
Phil Harris
#40. Music is very nebulous, and you can conjure up a lot of moods with music. But lyrics - they're a lot more tangible. They're much more specific. And you want to say something meaningful and creative and artistic and that tells a story and that takes people someplace else.
Sarah McLachlan
#41. I like being a storyteller. I'm bored with myself; I like to write about others. I have a lot of names in my songs: Karen, Margaret, Mary Kay. Even if it's about me, I want to put it through someone else. The music is the soundtrack to the story.
Jill Sobule
#42. Whatever you do in life, there's content and form; only those two put together create special meaning of a great work of art or great interpretation of music or a great story that you tell.
Itay Talgam
#43. I think with drama, at least for me, my process, there's a lot of thought. I do a lot of back story. I listen to a lot of music. I'm very committed to a process when it comes to drama, but with comedy, I think it's really about letting loose.
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
#44. I think, for a love story, the most important element is the music, since you don't have action sequences or item numbers. It really draws in the audience and adds to at least 70 percent of the opening of the movie.
Ranbir Kapoor
#46. I believe that filmmakers have to internalize the story and subtext so well that all of the departments can start to speak to each other - that music can speak to cinematography can speak to writing and back again.
Shane Carruth
#47. For so long music has been my heart, but now it's you ... you're my heart.
Cassandra Giovanni
#48. When I was dancing, whether it was the music or the story, the question was 'Why am I doing this piece, and why am I dancing?' It is exactly the same when you are acting. You have a very close relationship with your body movement. You have to find the physicality of your character.
Sofia Boutella
#49. I like a good story and I also like staring at the sea
do I have to choose between the two?
David Byrne
#50. I'm not ashamed, or embarrassed. I'm happy that I grew up listening to gospel music and came from where I came from. I feel like I have a history and a story. That's what I am and that's what I'll always be from. I was never running away from it.
Katy Perry
#51. I'm pretty committed to being a filmmaker because it incorporates everything I love: music, art direction, story, and you know - everything.
Adria Petty
#52. Sometimes we focus on the lyrics too much and forget to dance to the music.
Alexa Anderson
#53. If the breaking news story had to do with hard news, politics specifically, I had a lot to do with it. If it had to do with music, Kurt Loder was more involved.
Tabitha Soren
#54. There's always a story in music, and it's expressed through my music.
Ledisi
#55. I find inspiration in many places. Sometimes music gives me the kernel of a story. Sometimes it's dissatisfaction with the plot of a movie or a book that gets me thinking. Sometimes it's love of a movie or book.
Christopher Paolini
#56. It was Rick's Rubin idea to have the 'Brooklyn' verse repeat. It already was a story, but having that made it a folk song. Instead of this rambling march of verses, Rick understands that music needs hooks. You need that repeated chorus, that everyone can sing along to.
Scott Avett
#57. I want story, wit, music, wryness, color, and a sense of reality in what I read, and I try to get it in what I write.
John D. MacDonald
#58. Don't see the notes. See the music. See the story it is telling you. Allow the music to change you. Allow it to give you the courage to do whatever you need to
Karen White
#59. I want people to be able to relate to the music, to enjoy the music, in a sense of it being fun and interesting and maybe kind of quirky. I want people to be impacted by the story.
Bridgit Mendler
#60. Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermission? I want the reader to be sort of surprised, to come to each story freshly.
Lydia Davis
#61. I always tell people I write songs, but I'm a writer. It's a difference. I can write songs to music, but I can write a story. I can see ideas spark in me.
Ester Dean
#62. The Fiesta Tour McDonald's exhibit is a one-of-a-kind compilation of items and great moments in Latin music history. Every item has a unique story, including the outfit which I wore during the 2008 Premios Juventud awards.
Thalia
#63. And in the background of Early's story was her voice. Her soul. Her sadness and longing. Because when it's raining, it's always Billie Holiday. p. 81
Clare Vanderpool
#64. I like showing different types of comedy - showing that I could tell a story, or showing that I could do a one-liner, showing I could do stuff about music - so just trying to be versatile and talking about different topics.
Hannibal Buress
#65. Whenever I started writing music, it just naturally led itself there. As I started to tell my story, it's where my home was. It's just a very natural choice.
Jamie Lynn Spears
#66. Wow! This woman is doing a lot of strange things to me and I want more. Much more.
A.R. Von
#67. And so farewell from your little droog. And to all others in this story profound shooms of lip-music brrrrr. And they can kiss my sharries. But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. Amen. And all that cal.
Anthony Burgess
#68. Whenever you listen to a piece of music, what you are actually doing is hearing the latest sentence in a very long story you've been listening to - all the pieces of music you've ever heard.
Brian Eno
#69. It is a rare American who does not have some story about how music has made our lives richer and more interesting, how it has changed our moods, brought out the best in our character and even sometimes helped us earn a living.
Lamar Alexander
#70. I've taken all the scandals back and made them part of my story and my music.
Demi Lovato
#71. Truth has a resonance to it that fills the cracks where falsehoods lie.
Rick DeStefanis
#72. Some of my favorite films are musicals, like 'Walk the Line,' 'The Rose' and 'Lady Sings the Blues.' I just love the way the music and the story fuel each other.
Gina Prince-Bythewood
#73. There is nothing more incredible and moving and appealing than good music, and it cannot always be reduced to a story, to exposition. It's so much more abstract and brilliant.
Sufjan Stevens
#74. My story of success and failure is not just about music and being famous. It's about living and loving and trying to find purpose in this crazy world.
Wynonna Judd
#75. I'm working on my life story. I'm not decided if it's going to be a musical or a movie with music in it.
Dolly Parton
#76. But we weren't a phenomenon like the Beatles or Elvis Presley or the Rolling Stones: We were only as good as our last hit. We lived on our music and couldn't slide on anything - and this show is that story.
Bob Gaudio
#77. When Josh and I are recording a record, we're very mindful of how the music will manifest itself live. That's where we have to live every day. When we tour for the next record, I imagine there will be a new story to tell, and we'll introduce new characters.
Tyler Joseph
#78. Music carries the weight of being human, takes it away so you don't have to think at all, you just have to listen. Music tells every story there is.
Estelle Laure
#79. Even films without music are inspiring, as I think a good story is full of changes, different paces, and ideas.
Volker Bertelmann
#80. I picked up the guitar very late, in a very pagan way - I didn't know how to play, but I knew I had to. I drew and I had a diary, but it wasn't enough; I needed to express more. As soon as I learned two notes, I started to tell a story, which is why, I guess, my music resembles blues or folk.
Lou Doillon
#81. You know-portraits are odd things." "How do you figure?" I asked. "Well at the time, that portrait told the whole story. It told the truth. We were a family-a happy family. Now that same portrait just looks like a lie.
Brian Joyce
#82. If you can't play all the instruments in the orchestra of story, no matter what music may be in your imagination, you're condemned to hum the same old tune.
Robert McKee
#83. There's also something happening in television similar to what happened in the '80s, when people stopped taking so many drugs and wanted to hear real instruments in music again. I think people want plot, story and characters. Those are more important than having a big star.
Jessica Pare
#85. My favorite composers are the ones that tell the story. I love Wagner. I love Mahler. Prokofiev. The programmatic music. I listen more to classic rock because I don't like the contemporary music very much.
Patti LuPone
#86. I think it has most to do with the way in which a story is told, whether it feels real either via the music of the telling or the 'honesty' of the story.
Chris Ware
#87. Music, I find, gets you out of a trap [when screenwriting], because it speaks to your emotions directly, it's an abstract thing, it's not concerned with plot or story. And so music really helps - often I'll listen to the music and just write anything, just to get through.
Tony Grisoni
#88. I feel like people, when it comes to music, whatever genre, they relate to the story more than just the song.
Chamillionaire
#89. I love 'White Christmas.' That's one of my favorites just because I love the music. I love the story, Bing Crosby. It's just one of my all time favorites. And it's hard to have a Christmas without seeing a little bit of Jimmy Stewart and angels running around town.
Scott Bakula
#90. Music is always key to me, whether it's 'Miami Vice' or not 'Miami Vice.' It's dictated by the story, about what Crockett and Tubbs and Isabella and Trudy are doing.
Michael Mann
#91. Etta James is my all-time favorite singer. I've said it in every interview, in every story, in every on- and off-camera question. That music was always such a huge escape for me, even from a young age.
Christina Aguilera
#92. I'm sort of obsessed with Harlem. Just its history. My father did the music for a play called 'The Huey P. Newton Story,' and they did a lot of work in Harlem. So as a little girl, I spent a lot of time in Harlem Library.
Tessa Thompson
#93. When you listen to someone improvise, the notes that are played are only half the story.
Hubert Laws
#94. My music is just about story telling. I don't have much to say, and I'm not trying to change anyone's mind. I'm just singing through conviction about what I love and what I care about, starting with the very small.
Sufjan Stevens
#95. It was mix tapes, that's my story, I did a lot of mix tapes, that's what I started doing when I was 17. I got with a hot DJ out here and you know Texas, the rap scene is different, everyone out here is on the Screw music.
Slim Thug
#96. Then think of fire, It's laughter, the music of splintering beams and glass, The flames reaching through the second story of a house almost as if to -mistakenly- rescue someone who left you years ago. It is so American, fire. So like us. It's desolation. And it's eventual, brief triumph.
Larry Levis
#97. The music takes on all different jobs and hopefully is part of telling the story. Each song has to be a story unto itself. It's a very different set of muscles.
Frank Wildhorn
#98. That's one of the things I like best about folk music is the beautiful melodies - and the harmonies - that exist in it. And of course, some of the stories, the story songs.
Roger McGuinn
#99. To me, Gospel music is really any music that's a testimony and tells a story of what God has done in your life.
Laura Allen
#100. When I get to tell a story through music videos or TV, it's all about finding the story that I want to tell, so I'm definitely open to acting roles, it just depends on the story.
Taylor Swift
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