早在两千多年前的欧洲，就有吟游诗人带着鲁特琴或者其它简单的乐器，到处传颂着王公大臣的英雄事迹。这些吟游诗人游街串巷云游四海以吟唱为生。每到一处，根据收益的多少来决定吟唱的时间长短。如果地域富庶可以挣很多银子，那就吟唱很长时间，有的时候，一个故事可以连续吟唱一个多月，一直到人们听腻了才转移战场。很多年之后，我们国家也出现了类似的职业，比如评书，京韵大鼓，相声，各种戏剧等等。
那个时候的艺术表现形式，以吟唱为主，不过，每次吟唱的内容都是不太一样的。
后来，有了五线谱，人们记录下来了曲调和歌词，吟游诗人逐渐被更专业的人取代。故事被分解，被细化，每一个段落或者每一个演出记录的信息量有限。
1989年，Billy Joel 推出了他火爆几十年的单曲：We Didn't Start the Fire.
那个时候，Billy Joel 火遍全世界而且历久不衰。他的这首单曲信息量爆棚，一直到现在，仍然是信息量最大的一首单曲。
我们先读一读他这首歌的歌词：
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
（第一段就包含了美国总统杜鲁门，好莱坞影星多瑞斯呆，红色中国，美国歌手强尼雷，南太平洋，美国专栏作家沃尔特文切尔和美国棒球明星酒迪马济奥，这每一个名字都能写一本厚厚的书。）
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye"
Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide
Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, （他居然还知道胡志明）Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
这首歌的信息量超级大，各种人物、地名、事件说了个遍。提到和中国有关的就有几个地方：红色中国，周恩来，计划生育，中国的军事管制等等，有的版本还有 Chairman Mao 。
如今， Billy Joel 已经是一个老头了，但是，依然活跃。
大艺术家：笔力酒！
《版权单曲所有，翻印信息不究》
