Music as a story

For centuries, music has been used to tell a story. Traditionally, opera is considered the primary format for musical stories. Jacopo Peri's 1597 work "Dafne" was the earliest composition to be considered an opera. The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy, has housed the perfomance of musical stories since the 18th century.

Some of the most famous stories in the world became famous only after being set to music. Les Miserables, the 1862 novel by French author Victor Hugo, became well-known only after becoming the third-longest running show in Broadway history. Andrew Lloyd Webber took Gaston Leroux's French novel entitled "The Phantom of the Opera" and set it to music in 1986. Dozens of writers and artists, including Elton John and Tim Rice, collaborated to take the popular Disney film The Lion King to the Broadway stage in 1997.

However, it is no longer only operas and orchestra's which demonstrate the power of stories in music. Many modern, alternative artists have begun to tell their stories through music. Brian Warner, better known as Marilyn Manson, set his personal story to music in a 3-part epic which released over five years with 1996's "Antichrist Superstar," 1999's "Mechanical Animals"and 2001's "Holy Wood." Claudio Sanchez took his relatively unknown comic book series, "The Amory Wars," and gave it a voice through Coheed and Cambria, a band whose studio albums chronicle the adventures of Claudio Kilgannon, the protagonist of the comic series.

Many other bands have taken their stories and set them to music, including The Mars Volta, Dream Theater, and Tool. Whether you like the style's these musicians play or not, the talent and artistic ability required to create separate worlds and tell intricate stories is far beyond that of the average three-minute radio-friendly pop ditty artist.