music and the mood of a society

this conversation has come up again. first with jon. then with john.
does the music of this decade reflect society's mood or does the mood of the society affect the kind of music being made?
this thought came to mind as i've been working more with addictions and mental health and have noticed the recent (last few years) trend back to cocaine...(and especially crack! maybe because people are poorer? that's a different rant altogether...)
cocaine is a stimulant and usually people self-medicate accordingly...if a whole society has been depressed as of late, why not increase your dopamine response? makes logical sense.
of course, i've also been reading recent literature stating that alcohol is the new weed.
which would make sense with the cocaine spike because alcohol is a depressant.
so whether society is just depressed as a result of the state of the world or whether depression is a result of the increase in alcohol use, music is being affected.
in the last decade the music has been full of depressing emo-type tunes.
or crappy disco pop music (all the "the" bands...c'mon, let's be real. it IS disco). this is the '80s revisited. shitty disco with blow. it all makes sense.
what happened to the acid? the weed? the psychadelics that spawned a generation of guitar riffs and experimental instrumental bands. (don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of awesome instrumental bands out there! but rock, punk, anything remotely revolutionary just isn't in the mainstream. and where is all the good, politically-driven, intelligent rap/hip hop?).
john says the recent meth bust with the hell's angels in BC (he's from victoria) had an impact with the decline of meth and meth-related drugs (ie: K), therefore increasing the use of cocaine. that it's all about drugs and the economy. and this in turn affects the music. we are a culture run by drugs and money. money and drugs.
jon says it's like the chicken or the egg debate. maybe the music is influencing the mood? after all, the music that is popular right now has been emerging for the last decade or so. maybe all this shitty music has made society depressed?
i'm hoping that there's a musical revolution coming soon.
(maybe spawned by the impending collapse of the economy? once again, another rant, another time.)
the societal revolution this time is environmental. finally.
it took this long for "green" to be the new in thing.
it's about time the mainstream took hold of the environment as an issue to capitalize on.
maybe this will bring about a change in music. and mood. or mood. and music.

~
Food for thought: What is the What - Dave Eggers
In reality: have gender roles become so ingrained in us that they've become part of the evolutionary process? does this mean as they're trying to be broken down, it'll take another 100 years before new gender roles are ingrained into the evolutionary process?