This is the last Midweek Music Meme; it’s run a year and I’m about out of ideas. So here’s the final question:

What hit song of the last 5 years do you think will become a “golden oldie” 2 or 3 decades from now?

I’m rather stumped on an answer, myself. So I’ll just say, “Thanks for playing!” and hope that there will be some good answers in the comments box.

Sorry, no Midweek Music Meme question this week. The last several days have brought new and interesting (can you feel the sarcasm? I knew you could) fuq’ed-up drama into my life, despite all my efforts to prevent and avoid that sort of thing. One of my romantic relationships is, for all intents & purposes, over - largely due to the phenomenally stupid, irresponsible, & self-centered choices of a couple of other people. My only consolations are that he & I do have a friendship that is still (and I believe always will be) solid and incredibly important to us both, and that his wonderful lady & I did manage to navigate this whole poly relationship thing like two mature, responsible, caring & genuine friends (which is a lot more than I can say for some people).

Craptastic, now I’ve got Elton John’s “Sad Songs Say So Much” running through my head, and I don’t even like that song. Grrr.

My sweetie is leaving on a jet plane (are you old enough to remember that song?) tomorrow for a week in Australia. My eldest demonspawn Angst is going with her boyfriend Beanpole on a day-trip to Seattle on Saturday. My younger demonspawn Anxiety is getting home tomorrow from a 2-day field trip to the Oregon coast. Looks like I’m the only one without travel plans!

What music do you like best for a roadtrip? Do you like relaxing music to get you into that kicked-back vacation mode, or songs that really get you revved up & excited?

I’m most fond of high-energy music when I drive (the soundtracks to Top Gun & Hackers are good, and also the fast tunes by Pat Benatar, Avril Lavigne, & Godsmack), and more mellow music when I fly (Trans-Siberian Orchestra is great!).

If you’re old enough to remember the commercial the entry title comes from: congratulations, you’re old. Anyway, as we wind down to the last Midweek Music Meme question, I’m quickly running out of ideas and hounding my friends & loved ones for questions. This one came from that guy I live with who idolizes Alice Cooper (frightening, isn’t it?):

What two musical genres would you like to see blended?

I personally can’t stand most music genre blend-type-things. I mean, Christian rock? Sucks. Country rock? Usually sucks. Country rap? I tremble in horror at the thought.

Still, I think it would be amusing to listen to some heavy-metal classical. I want to hear some Metallica done by a big-city Symphony Orchestra. *giggle*

As I was listening to my iPod at work today, I had an odd little thought. The song that was playing was the really nifty version of the Scorpions “Hurricane” recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as backup (and how cool is that!). And I thought, Wouldn’t it be neat if you could travel back in time with an iPod, and have some symphony composer listen to a piece of modern music?

If you could travel back in time just long enough to have some historic musician listen to a modern piece of music, what composer would you choose and what song would you share with them?

I’d choose Wagner, because I think he’d appreciate the rock of today. And the song I’d have him listen to would be Hanging By A Moment, by Lifehouse. Or maybe White Houses by Vanessa Carlton. Or any of the first 5 tracks on the Evanescence CD. Wow, it’s hard to choose.

It’s been a busy few days, and apparently I have no creative inspiration whatsoever, on any level. So it’s going to be reader-participation day on the Midweek Music Meme.

What question concerning music would you ask a group of random people if you could?

Obviously I have no answer this week (since this is usually where I put my answer to the question I’ve just asked every week). There are only 5 more weeks (after this one) of the Midweek Music Meme, since I’ve decided to wrap it up after an even year. So maybe a question you suggest in the comments here will be one of them!

For a lot of people, music doesn’t seem to be much of an influence or motivator in their life. And for others, their lives seem to revolve around it.

How much influence do you think music has had on your life, and why? Give examples!

Music helps me realize & express my emotions, which I would have to say is a pretty important influence in life. When I can’t quite pin down something on an emotional level, going through my music library and deciding out what I want to listen to can help me realize what’s going on with my feelings…even if it takes eons to realize just what that song meant to me, in my heart & soul. Years after I last saw William, I finally figured out that I’d been in love with him when it dawned on me that I couldn’t think of him without hearing As I Lay Me Down by Sophie B. Hawkins in my head.

We’ve all been subjected to the hoodlums with thousand-dollar subwoofers driving around, who feel it’s their right to share their musical taste with the entire neighborhood. At ridiculous decibels. In a perfect world, there would be some way to direct a narrow-beam EMP at those idjits, or…

What song would you, if you could get away with it, infli—… er, share with the town at large, at full volume?

I would definitely “share” impossibly perky stuff, like Petula Clark’s Downtown. Or perhaps impossibly commercial pop schmaltz like Britney Spears Oops! I Did It Again. (The actual question this week was brought to you by my Number One Internet Fanboy. He is not, however, responsible for my taste in music, although he does keep trying to improve it. *grin*)

It seems that, more and more, songs that have hit the Top 40 are being used in TV commercials. I was rather startled to see a commercial featuring the song Stacy’s Mom (Has Got It Going On). It was kinda creepy, too.

What is your favorite (or least favorite!) commercial that features a song?

Tonight I saw a Dr. Pepper commercial that I just loved to death. While the song I Would Do Anything For Love plays, you see a guy buying his girl tampons, folding her panties in the laundromat, and other adorable signs of devotion. Then while they’re cuddling on the couch, she tries to take his Dr. Pepper (as the song reaches “but I won’t do that”), and he runs (literally!) away, out the door and down the middle of the street. It’s certainly more attention-catching than that awful “Wouldn’t You Like To Be a Pepper Too?” jingle.

There’s been lots of discussion about the Rocky Horror Picture Show in my house lately, since the youngest has been trying to talk me into letting her join the local cabaret later this year. (Maybe I should horrify - pun intended - my daughters and try out for a part, myself!) But it got me thinking about the whole concept of groups all over the country acting out a film while it’s playing onscreen.

If you could make any musical into a cabaret act, sort of like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, with people acting out the parts en masse, which musical would you choose and which part would you play?

I’m not all that fond of musicals, and have seen very few of them willingly. I think I’d be the chair in Flashdance. You know, the one that Jennifer Beals dances all over with the downpour of water hitting her at the end. Or I could be a Nazi in The Sound of Music, but only if I get to have a real gun. Uhm, have I said too much?