In your opinion, which decades were, musically, the best, most underrated, and most overrated?

[Buccura]

Here are my choices.

Best: 70s.
Yes there were plenty of bad songs like any other decade, but this is also the decade where a lot of timeless bands either got started or got big. To name just a few, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Queen, KISS, and that's just naming the few that pop in my head right away. And you know what? I also even like Abba. You heard me.

Most Underrated: 90s.
Personally, I think that while indeed this is the decade that has the surge of boy bands, there was still I think a lot of really good music to come out of this decade. The obvious ones of course are Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Pearl Jam. This is also of course the decade where Daft Punk started. And you know what else? I can even still enjoy some of the stuff from the nu-rock bands at the time. Well, save for Limb Bizkit perhaps but still. You can at least also say this, over all, even the cheesy pop music tends to feel more happy and upbeat than what is heard today, not to mention the lack of auto-tune.

Most Overrated: 80s
That's right. You heard me. I think the 80s is overrated. Now, don't get me wrong, I know a lot of great artists came out of this decade. To name a few, Metallica, Michael Jackson, Tears for Fears, Journey, hell I even like The Police more than most people do, and Falco's cover of Puttin' on the Ritz is a guilty pleasure of mine. But, this decade also brought us Billy Ray Cyrus, Michael Bolton, and a lot of other musicians that have been pretty much forgotten by all but the most hardcore of nostalgia buffs.

But, this is just my opinion. Tell me how wrong and stupid I am and what your picks for these categories are.

Also I didn't include worst decade because I know a lot of them will just be the 2000s.

 

[Rack]

Best: 80s. I don't see the mileage in rating music on the tat that comes out, solely the good stuff. And there's just a massive amount of great music here. That said a lot of that is because of bands that were continuing work they started in the

Most underrated 70s. I don't think anyone particularly disses it, but there's an amazing amount of great music from here, very close to the amount that comes from the 80s.

Most overrated 60s. I didn't want to have to do this, but I had no idea where else to go. I could have gone 80s but I don't think it gets quite as much praise as the 60s do. I can see why, the 60s was pretty much the birth of music as far as I'm concerned and it still manages a few of my favourite songs and favourite bands. But in terms of how much music came out of it to the amount of praise it gets I think the 60s has to take this one.

 

[commodorejohn]

Best and most underrated: as has been said, the 1970s. Unfortunately most people just focus on the disco and Paul-McCartney-post-60s-synthpop aspects of the decade, but pretty much everywhere else in music there was all kinds of good stuff going on. (My personal true love being classic progressive rock, but man, rock was evolving into hard rock was evolving into metal, jazz was getting even crazier...it was good times just about all around.)

 

[similar.squirrel]

The 2000s seems to get sadly overlooked, but that could be due to the fact that they're too recent for a full analysis. But they gave us the bulk of Radiohead's amazing work, Muse, a lot of Djent, a lot of great techno..

The 80s were almost uniformly dreadful. Except for post-punk, noise-rock and the beginnings of shoegaze.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Best: All of them.
Most Overrated: All of them.
Most Underrated: All of them.

Every single decade has it share of gems and a large assortment of drek. You can find good music from any decade as long as you're willing to look.

 

[Optiluiz]

Totally agree with OP. I still love Men At Work, though. AND, I still prefer the 80s to nowadays.

 

[Merkavar]

i can answer. i like music from like all decades. david bowie to nightwish. there is enough good music from each decade to keep me ocupied

 

[Phlakes]

The 70s and 80s were amazing. Sure, a lot of it was technically shit, but I'd rather listen to OTT glam rock than STD crusted R&B.

Also, fucking Bohemian Rhapsody, the greatest song ever written-


This coming from a fan of mostly game soundtracks.

 

[Vault101]

nothing....

the history and trends dont interest me, I like what I like regardless of its time, how popular it is or what kind of subculuture is associated, and I also barley take notice of pop

 

[red the fister]

ok. tell me if i'm wrong.

best: the decade the music of your teen years came from.

most underrated: that stuff your parents just didn't get, man!

most overrated: the one that the oldies channel played most of it's "shit" from when you were a teen. i'm having trouble accepting that Hair Metal is oldies now :'-(

 

[enzilewulf]

Best decade: 90's. the rap in that was fucking amazing. Music had grown out of the whole rock scene and was entering hip hop

Most underrated: this decade. Rap isn't the most complicated form of music granted, but its still some damn good stuff if you can find it (Also we got dubstep!)

Most overrated: 60-70's. Wasn't that great in my opinion. Rock isn't my kind of genre.

 

[rapidoud]

Baroque is severely underrated when it is the basis of all modern music.

Most overrated: Anything in the past 100 years, so all the decades.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Best: All of them.
Most Overrated: All of them.
Most Underrated: All of them.

Every single decade has it share of gems and a large assortment of drek. You can find good music from any decade as long as you're willing to look.

I love you. This. A thousand times this.