Myself, I always fancied myself as an 80s boy and grew up watching MTV. As I have grown older, I have found that I like the music from the 70s a lil more. Lately though, I seem to be liking the 60s equally as much as the 70s. I think its that alot of music from those eras seemed to have a message, where songs from the 80s and 90s was more about trying out new ideas (sorry, can't explain it better). I havent listened to FM radio or bought any new CDs in almost 10 years, so I can't comment much on the 2000s. Here is how I would rank them, personally: 1. 70s 2. 60s 3. 80s (i go back and forth on whether the 80s was better than the 60s) 4. 90s (a forgettable era IMO (sorry grunge and alternative).
I would probably say the 60's. I know more 60's songs than 70's songs, so the 60's win me over in that department.... But as far as the 80's and 90's it's a tossup. 2000's aren't even halfway over yet - I am hoping for something truly memorable to come out the next few years - otherwise it's just a giant conglomeration of hybrid music IMO.
For me, the 80s is head and shoulders above everyone else. Then the 70's edge out the 60s in a photo finish, and the 90s come in dead last, being after lapped by every other decade twice. 1) 80s 2) 70s 3) 60s 4) 90s
1966-1969 are the greatest years of music ever. Aside from the obvious masterworks released by the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, The Who, and so on, incredible records were released by The Pretty Things, MC5, Stooges, Tomorrow, Velvet Ungerground, Small Faces, Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Back Sabbath, and the list goes on and on. Freaking Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Dylan, The Band. Do I need to go on? It's not even close.
1. 90s - R&B and HipHop's greatest years 2. 80s - Pop music's greatest years. 3. 00s - Cheap imitation of the 90s. 4. 70s and 60s - maybe if im high.
And if we're just going by songs, the 60's still win. There were lots of one hit wonder singles band who never ever will be matched. The freaking Eyes, La Di Da's, The Move, Wimple Winch, The Birds, The Action, Easybeats The Seeds, 13th floor elevators, Smoke, Fleur De Lys, Them, John's Children, Troggs, Blue Cheer, Golliwogs, Stendells, Chocolate Watch Band, Shaws of Knight. Do I really need to go on? The 60's win.
A lot of '60s music is my kryptonite, especially toward the late '60s when so much psychadelic and wussy folk was made. A lot of good stuff came out the era (I enjoy Hendrix and I love stuff like Aretha Franklin, etc), but a lot of the stuff that just screams 1960s is just unlistenable to me.
The 1950s era produced the greatest songs & music. It's the era when blues music moved from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago and the big cities of the midwest and northeast, and it's the era when rock and roll was born from rhythm and blues. No greater era in the history of music, IMHO.
I love '70s Funk and '80s Punk. I would give the '70s the edge with the rise of punk in the later half of the decade. The '70s have the most soul. Hard Rock was lame in that era though.
I somewhat in agreement with RMT...you should have included the 50's in the poll....some really great early rock and blues were from the 50s... other than that... 70's and 80's in a virtual tie...60's close behind. 90's and 00's not even on the horizon. there hasnt been any good music released by a band formed after 89. some of the older groups are still plugging away with some good stuff....but thats about it.
The Disco era was not pretty if you lived through it. It has a sort of nostalgic kitsch to it now...but that's only through a filter of 25 years. (Abba, however, rules). The Eighties were cool. My music. But a drum machine and hairspray do not a musical genius make. The Nineties and Uh-oh's are too recent -- and those endless boy-bands pretty much cancel out any great music that's being produced. So I'll go with the 60's. Just don't tell my mom.
The 70s, no contest. AC/DC Rolling Stones Queen KISS Cheap Trick Bowie T-Rex Ramones Led Zeppelin Black Sabbath Alice Cooper Aerosmith Van Halen Thin Lizzy Sex Pistols Mott the Hoople Judas Priest Motorhead etc. Meowgi - hard rock was lame in the 70s? Huh? When was it ever better?
Looks like in the minority... I'm a 90's person, especially early 90's. Haven't heard a lot of stuff outside the 90's... so I'll just try to make the case that the 90's wasn't bad at all; some albums from the 90's that I thought were very good: Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magick Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream Radiohead - The Bends Nirvana - In Utero Stone Temple Pilots - Core Beastie Boys - Check Your Head Live - Throwing Copper Another band of note is Sonic Youth, but I guess people tend to remember them more for their 80's stuff.
You're right. I was focusing on the REO Speedwagons, etc. The T-Rexes and Black Sabbathes I think more late 60's and real early seventies. I could care less about Zeppelin, to many peoples horror. Ramones, Pistols and Cheap Trick don't count. Wasn't Motorhead still in Hawkwind in the '70s, I don't know much about em? Still, when I think '70s music, I think Parliament, Ohio Players etc.
For me, it is close between the 70's and 60's. The 60's were the Beatles, Beach Boys, the entire British Invasion, Dylan, Hendrix, Motwon, Atlantic R&B...just awesome. But, the 70's had pretty much all the best "rock" bands - Zeppelin, Van Halen (first record was 78), Aerosmith, etc. Plus, there was Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Bill Joel, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, all the progressive stuff like Rush and tons of great singer/songwriter music. The 80's produced some great bands/artists, but they were so few and far between. I HATED so much of the crappy synthetic pop music of the 80's, it was hard to find the quantity of great artists that were in the 60's and 70's. I think there were good artists in the 90's, but the industry has consolidated itself so much, you really have to hunt for them. To me the big difference between the 60's/70's and 80's-forward is that the amount of great music being made and innovation was just so much greater in the 60's/70's probably because rock music was so much newer then.
Sixties, then 70s.....then, maybe 35 levels lower, the 80's, the the 90's. Way too early to make a call on the 00's yet, but we are skipping some earlier era's, even under the headings of contemporary music. If the 70's didn't contain most of the best funk of all time, for all the great dusty rock/folk music of the time, the 60's would be 50 million times better, but as funk is and remains such an incredibly influential not to metnion awesome genre, the 70's have to follow the 60's with not too much distance between them. But if I could have been alive and listening to the music of my youth at any time, it would have been the 60's, by a fair margin. Can you imagine being there and current when all that stuff was coming out!?!? Otis, Marvi, the Stones, the Beatles...god, to be sitting in a '62 Stingray ( big block(, in the summer, with a girl in the car, hearing A Whiter Shade of Pale, or Hold On, I'm Coming for the very first time...I have always envied my parents generation for having had that experience.
