Talking Heads- ‘Once in a Lifetime’ – You never know where you’ll end up; any chance is one you may never get again.

Flaming Lips- ‘Fight Test’ – “There are things you can’t avoid/you have to face them when you’re not prepared to face them.”

U2- ‘Zoo Station’ – Life can be crazy, and you have to be ready for anything and everything.

Yeasayer- ‘Ambling Alp’ – Stand up for yourself: if you don’t, no one else will.

Kinky- ‘Snapshot’ – Take a picture of this moment and hold on to it, you’ll have new moments and memories to add.

Ben Folds Five- ‘One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces’ – Everyone grows up from the kid they were back at home.

Green Day- ‘Welcome to Paradise’ – Home is what you make of it, give anything a chance, and it could end up becoming what you need it to be.

Arcade Fire- ‘Wake Up’ – Accept adulthood, or be stuck as a child and left behind.  You have that power to grow up.

Hootie and the Blowfish- ‘Time’ – Never let time get the better of you, and spend your time the best you can.

Pearl Jam- ‘Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town’ – Travel the world, but come back to visit and tell us.

Foo Fighters- ‘New Way Home’ – Don’t be afraid to try a new street, or anything new, you have to explore.

You can use Top10Songs.com to compare lists from each year since 2004. You also can check out a specific month or even a specific week! Last week, Lady Antebellum‘s “Need You Now,” Train‘s “Hey, Soul Sister,” and Taio Cruz‘s “Break Your Heart” topped the charts, whereas in 2005, during the same week, we saw Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” Will Smith‘s “Switch,” and the Black Eyed Peas‘ “Don’t Phunk With My Heart.” The only artist that appears on both the lists is the Blacked Eyed Peas, with “Imma Be” at number 6 this week.

The Top 10 list that I find the most intriguing is “Top 10 Songs to Date”, which pulls information from July 2004 to today to calculate the most-purchased songs over the past six years. Black Eyed Peas‘ fairly recent hit “I Gotta Feeling” is first. In fact, the Black Eyed Peas also take 4th and 6th with “Boom Boom Pow” and “My Humps,” respectively.

It makes me wonder if the Black Eyed Peas simply have very good marketing, because if you think about it, they haven’t been making the Top 10 lists in many other areas (though I suppose, in the end, retails is where it counts). The group did win three Grammys this year but had won only three Grammys total prior to that (in 2005, 2006, and 2007). How do they do it? (And does it bother anyone else that none of the songs follow regular English conventions? Maybe that’s their secret!)

*I’m always a bit skeptical about Top 10 lists because music is such a subjective topic. To clarify, these Top 10 lists are based on the top weekly downloads. In other words, it is calculated based on weekly sales, taken from online song retailers. These are not the same songs that were the most-requested on the radio during a certain month.

The problem is: how do you know if something will be significant in the future?  You don’t, you have to give it your best guess and see what the next trends will be over the new decade.  With the sounds of 80s synth pop oozing off of many of the current releases I’ve been hearing on the radio I would imagine the next move could be a return to 90s style alt-rock.  Is this true?  I have no idea, but it is fun to speculate.

I would try to create a list of top albums from this decade, or singles, but I have no time or strength to do either.  I may at some point post something about albums that had a significant effect on music at the time and give you a list of my favorite albums from the past 10 years; I just have to check my schedule.

For something to be thrown in this category it has to meet the criteria that this little piece of art is timeless.  This song or album captured the nature of humanity while it was popular and so on and so forth.  I have a few good candidates that I’ll share with you right now: for song of the decade I’d choose OutKast’s “Hey Ya” or Gnarls Barkey’s “Crazy”.  Those are my opinions, what are yours?  Please let me know.