Apologies in advance if this thread title seems a bit pretentious.
I was just wondering about what importance,if any, you all attach to a song corresponding with your own experience?
This slightly abstract question came into my head because I was thinking about songs of North East England (which is my own region.)
These songs are charactered with young women boasting about their beau,young men coming to terms with unrequited love,people who express regional pride,value their family & domestic life,take pride in work but pleasure in socialising.
Sitting here a couple of centuries on I very much recognise their world as being the same one I live in.
Empathy in a word.How important is that to you that you can empathise with a song? I was thinking of how much I love "When a Man Loves a Woman" Which is universalisable,but "Get my kicks out on Route 66" which is non-universalisable means little to me.
There are exceptions.I feel & am moved by the yearning in "Shenandoah" despite that song dealing with events I was not part of in a place I have never been.
Also I find a responsive chord in me is struck by a great deal of Indian classical music though I would be lying if I claimed to fully comprehend that music.
Anybody else?