I love good stories. I love hearing them and I love telling them. Whenever my wife hears one of my old stories being retold to a new audience she tries desperately to hide her impatience. Some times she is very successful and sometimes she is not. I always appreciate the attempt but it doesn't stop me from telling them.
I use stories when I teach. I use them to relax the moment or to make a point. Sometimes my students, when hearing me begin a story, will lay the guitar down on their lap and sit back in their chair. They know...
I'm no expert, but I suspect that story telling is one of the earliest art forms. I imagine the men of a tribe sitting around the fire weaving stories of the dangers of a big hunt. And, of course, how they were able to track and kill their prey using their intellect. And the women rolling their eyes and only believing about half of it. They knew....
When they sang songs, the songs were either a form of prayer or a story of some kind. When they painted pictures they told simple stories too. Cave paintings in France date back some 30,000 years and in Indonesia closer to 35,000 years. Both had paintings of local animals (we revere, hunt, and eat these) and stencils of hands (I was here). The simplest of stories told often by every culture.
Todays pop culture is largely just story telling updated. Television and movies tell simple stories. I heard a screen writer once describe it as "putting a cat up a tree in the first five minutes and then spend the next two hours getting him out". Truthfully I don't care how familiar the story is as long as it's told in a clever and entertaining way.
Pop and Country music can be very familiar too. But that's also what makes it sell. If you can be singing along with the chorus by the end of the first listen then you are likely to want to hear it again (....and again).
Story telling in "fine" art is important too, in my opinion. Sometimes the story is direct like in a battle scene or the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Sometimes it's indirect like "La Maja" by Goya, "Starry Night" by Van Gogh, or "Blue Guitar" by Picasso. Or it can be suggested without specifics like a contemporary abstract.
As a classical guitarist I play instrumental music so the moment will nearly always be abstract. I must play a piece with a story in mind. And the song must flow like a story flows. A recital or concert should be structured like a play with each individual work treated as a scene - tension and release, beauty and conflict - until the climax at the very end.
Unfortunately there are composers who have forgotten the art of story telling. They write music that is clever and shows their considerable skills as well as the skills of the performer(s) but the music has nothing to say. I've heard far too many pop and jazz soloists that fit that same description. They use the music as a vehicle to show you how talented they are, but the result is they sound like they're just looking for the right notes and are unsure of where to find them.
But the great ones can use their music to take you on a strange and wonderful journey. And you're not sure if you're hearing a story or suddenly living in the midst of one. But there is a story to be sure. A great artist can paint a few squiggles on a canvas and either tell you their story or reflect your own story back to you.
Look for the stories. Some are as easy to find as turning on the TV. Others won't be so obvious but will usually have more meaning to you. A summer art fair, a local musician, a home-grown poet to be mixed into your diet of blockbusters and hit songs. These will add definition and color to your story. A story worth telling, I'm sure.