For the first time in my life, I am beginning to understand why your kids like that stuff they call music. (I don’t understand why it isn’t music yet, but maybe that’s part of the story, as well.)

But now, more than ever, I realize what motivates songwriters and, far more importantly, what touches the hearts and lives of the people who listen to their music.

It doesn’t make any difference how angry and alienated a songwriter is. If no one buys their music, they will never be heard. People buy music because it speaks to them and echoes their lives, their fears, their hope, their anger. I don’t listen to rock because it doesn’t speak to me, my life, my fears, my hopes. But it is a mistake to dismiss rock or rap, because your kids are listening—and responding. Consider, for example, the following lyrics…