It's amazing how much some things in your upbringing can stick with you into adulthood. I love to do media analysis and looking into music and stuff as anyone who actually follows me has probably learned. One thing that occurred to me the other day is that, while my musical tastes are incredibly vast and all over the place, I grew up in a very rural area with a heavy country music presence. So much so that I only ever listened to country music until my tastes evolved in high school. While I still do enjoy country music in some form (nothing from the 00s on up), I don't really listen to it much at all anymore except once in a great while.
I go through all this to bring up my realization. The thing country music used to do and was its whole thing until the paradigm shift in the 00s was that it was a vehicle to tell stories. So many songs telling interesting stories and perspectives. I think this story telling aspect in songs is something that has partially influenced some artists and music that I like today. At least it feels easy to single out a lot of artists and a majority of their work and what they make songs about where it's like, "yeaaaa, that checks out when you think about it in this way". I could list a bunch, but some early pivotal stuff that's influenced me heavily as a musician were Billy Joel and Ben Folds. Both of which almost entirely tell stories with their music.