My good friend, Manny, asked me to write an article regarding "How much has music changed Western society in the last fifty years". I am reminded of the lovely idea that music can change the world for the better. I am also reminded that all idealists, including me, are doomed to disappointment. Sure, someone out there is riding a train on their way to a rally while listening to Rage Against The Machine. However, every other passenger on that train is probably listening to Dido on their iPods. Change requires popular support. If music changes the world, we should have seen a back-and-forth influence between the socio-political events of the time and the most popular songs of the time.

I chose the Billboard music charts as my litmus test. Billboard is widely regarded as one the most relevant source of information on music trends. I found the most popular songs from Billboard's year-end charts since 1960, then cross-referenced them with the major events of those years:

1961 - The Berlin Wall goes up and Bobby Lewis has the biggest hit of the year with "Tossin and Turnin". Is he losing sleep over cold-war tensions? - probably not. If you read the lyrics - and there are about three of them - he is more likely concerned about some chick he met at the soda fountain.

1962 - During the Cuban Missile Crisis everyone's favourite tune was a lovely clarinet piece by Acker Bilk. You will find "Stranger On The Shore" in your grandma's vinyl collection.

1963 - Martin Luther King Jr makes his ‘I have a dream’ speech for civil rights at the March on Washington. JFK is shot. Apparently this is not half as interesting as the the hit song, "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs about "a cute little girlie in a black leotard".

1965 - African-American leader Malcolm X is assassinated. Sam the Sham has the biggest hit of the year with "Wooly Bully". This song is about …   Well, who the hell knows what this song is about. But it's certainly NOT about another great leader gettin' shot.

1966 - American B-52s Bomb North Vietnam. Veterans from both World Wars react by protesting in New York City. Despite vocal condemnation reaching a critical mass, the silent majority buys nine million copies of the jingoistic "Ballad of Green Berets" by Sergeant Barry Sadler. He wrote a cease-and-desist letter to The Beach Bums, (a group featuring a young Bob Seger) who recorded the parody, "Ballad of the Yellow Beret" about the adventures of a draft dodger. Sadler must have had some pull, as the parody was quickly withdrawn. The First Amendment must take a holiday during wartime, huh?

1968 - Students riot in Paris and Dr King is shot. The Beatles release the song, "Revolution", which bemoaned their fans for looking to them for answers: “But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow... Don't you know it's gonna be alright Allright, allright, alri... ". Their track, "Hey Jude", was the biggest hit of that year - sung by the nice one, Paul.

1969 - Woodstock three-day music festival held in the US. Millions march in protest against the war in Vietnam. 1969 is regarded as the giddy height of social change in the West. Surely the year would be marked by some kind of anthem to a time when we changed the way do things for the better? However, no-one seemed inspired. The most popular song that year was "Sugar, Sugar", by The Archies - a band of cartoon characters. I almost rest my case…

1973 - US troops pull out of Vietnam. To celebrate, Tony Orlando wants to "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree". You will find this one next to Acker Bilk in Grandma's vinyl collection.

1974 - US President Richard Nixon resigns following the Watergate scandal. A revolutionary new sound called punk rock emerges in UK. Although no-one really bought their music outside of London. The rest of the world, especially Barbara Streisand, would prefer to remember "The Way We Were".

1975 - North Vietnamese enter Saigon. Civil war in Lebanon. Nobody loves each other very much. However, The Captain and Teneille reassure us that "Love Will Keep Us Together". Goody.

1982 - AIDS is given a name, but Olivia Newton-John still wants to get "Physical".

1985 - Everyone is suddenly concerned about starving Ethiopians. Live Aid concert features the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Some might, but a third of the population is Muslim. The group involved have the catchy title of "Band Aid". And a band aid is all they could afford after recording and tour expenses. In the immortal words of Krusty the Klown, "You know those limos out the back aren't free". Despite all the self congratulating of those involved, “Careless Whisper” is the biggest hit of ‘85. George Michael is a gay guy pretending to be a straight guy doing two broads at once.

1987 -  Black Monday stock market crash. The biggest hit during this mess is “Walk Like An Egyptian” by The Bangles. Another hit song about f…all - remember “Wooly Bully”.

1989 - Berlin Wall falls – a symbolic end to the Cold War. Exxon Valdez tanker causes the world’s largest oil spill. Our leaders weep for the victims of The Tiananmen Square Massacre in China. "Look Away" is Chicago’s answer to the carnage.

1991 - USSR dissolves into fifteen separate republics. US and its allies begin Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. I wonder if Bush Snr was thinking “Everything I Do, I Do It For You”, like the Bryan Adams hit of that year?

1992 - LA riots after the videotaped police bashing of black man, Rodney King. The big hit during the race riots was "End of the road" by those lovely colored gentlemen, Boys 2 Men. They adorned the bedroom walls of middle class pre-pubescent white girls everywhere. Thankfully they looked nothing like the rioters pillaging the local Wal-Mart on TV.

1996 - OJ Simpson found not guilty of murdering his wife while everyone does the “Macarena”.

1999 - NATO begins bombing Yugoslavia in response to ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Kosovar Albanians. Cher still has reason to “Believe" because she now has a digitally altered voice to match her cosmetically altered face.

2006 - Release of Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth". Iraqi civilian casualties exceed 55,000. Daniel Powter’s hit song “Bad Day" is not about living in Iraq.

2008 - World stock markets plunge. Activists in Egypt use Facebook to rally for democracy. Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots in the Third World. Hey, you know what we all need to cheer us up? Another greasy gangsta black stereotype singing about how mac-daddy cool he is. Enter Flo Rider and his hit song, "Low". Thank God the following year was a breath of fresh political air.

2009 - Barack Obama becomes the first African-American US President. When in doubt about an intelligent response, just sing “BOOM POW” exclaims the adroit Black Eyed Peas (remember “Wooly Boolly”?).

Maybe our folks were right after all. Popular music IS crap. It doesn’t seem capable of anything except dividing consumers from their money. I want to believe that Public Enemy taught us "Don't Believe Tha Hype". I wanted to believe that Nine Inch Nails would confront the world "With Teeth". However, their fans are marginal compared to the monstrous following of escapist pop. Nevertheless, could these subcultural minorities be fighting a guerrilla war that we can't see for the popular charts?

Someone is still out there on a train listening to Rage Against The Machine. The woman beside her flips through a Hollywood gossip mag. On the carriage wall there is an advertisement featuring a pretty vacant girl pushing over-priced beauty cream. Our passenger feels like a stranger in this world of plastic and neon. In her earphones, the lyrics strike a perfect chord for her on the way to the rally:

"It's the beats and the lyrics they fear
The rage is relentless
We need a movement with a quickness
You are the witness of change
And to counteract
We gotta take the power back"