As I was researching music and the music charts, my daily ritual, I got to thinking about music trends and it’s ever influence on society as a whole.

It makes you wonder looking back through the years if music has the ultimate influence on society or is society directly impacting the style of music that is being produced and marketed these days.

Looking back through the years, the 50′s introduced us to slicked hair, blue jeans, white t-shirts, du wop music and sock hops. The teeny bopper was born.

Then along came the music of peace, love, happiness, drugs and sex. The music spoke truth of the time, told stories and made you want to hold hands with the one you loved.

Not much after that bell bottoms, platform shoes, the various lengths of skirts (most noteably the maxi) came in while society was Shake, Shake, Shaking their booting. Society was suffering from Saturday Night Fever, Monday through Sunday.

Coming in with a bang and throwing up anti-disco signs in the 80′s was New Wave, Synthpop, MTV, College Rock and Punk still steadily climbing the stairs of musicdom. It was big hair, neon colored everything and Electric Youth.

Then the 90′s made way. Grunge heavily impacting the youth of society. Turning us all into Nirvanaites and wanting badly to flock to Seattle to become groupies.

But about mid to late 90′s something changed. Pop music changed. We changed. No longer influenced by just one large mass of music, we were influenced by a variety of perhaps less than talented musicians. Or were we as a society growing and influencing the type of music being marketed to us?

Nowadays I’m quite certain that line, that seperated, distingushed music and society, is invisible. We have the hipsters wearing pants that are unsightly listening to music that make my ears bleed that has no real point, no real meaning and an voice crooning a song that makes me wish melody was the main factor in making music.

Don’t get me wrong. If you listened to my playlists and understood the range of music I listen to, you’d know that I have an open pallete audibly. I will quote myself here, I am an equal opportunity listener. The days of true punk, pop and actually knowing a musical genre are gone. Far, far, from our sight. So…

I asked some of my friends from Mom Dot what their favorite artists this year are and was relived that their thoughts on this fell right in line with mine. From Green Day (always), Britney Spears (amazingly wonderful post crazy), Tim McGraw and Lady GaGa. All amazing talent. Great music acts leaving my ears and body wanting, more, more and more.

But there are those who I sadly disagree with, the general public. Miley Cyrus who is so “poppy” and I’m sorry if I hear one more lyric sung about partying in the USA, I might, just might, throw a musical fit of rage and blast nothing but “Down With Sickness” dedicating to Miley and her one hit wonder Dad that is riding her coat tails of stardom. Next in line is the sickening sweet, cute faced, lovely songs of Taylor Swift. There is only so many times I can hear a song about Romeo and Juliet that I want to gag myself and force her to listen to “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit – only then would she feel my pain.

So I am sure after reading this you are wondering who are some of my favorite artists? Well here you go:

Pearl Jam

Bob Dylan

Ray LaMontagne

MGMT

Staind

Green Day

Simon & Garfunkel

Stone Temple Pilots

The Rolling Stones

Elvis Presley

Pink Floyd

and a lot, lot, lot more!

So what do you think is music influencing society or are we influencing music?