Poll: Which years had the best music?

[Casual Shinji]

Come on man

Alright, I concede. I cannot argue with classical music being great... It's just that it isn't in the poll!!

Yeah, I know it's not in the poll, but almost every decade of the 20th century had it's defining musical artists.

There's to much of them, I can't pick just one.

 

[IHaveNoCoolness]

The 1920's baby.

Oh yeah.

 

[Precious Pikachu]

I loved 90s alternative. It's what my parents listened to when I was in the car with them. I remember my mom always used to play her alanis morrisette cd with me in the car and I learned all the words to all the songs and said beep whenever she swore.

I remember singing "she went down on you in a theater" and not knowing what it was and not caring lol.

 

[reg42]

Every decade had it's own share of awesome music. I'll say now, because most of the music I listen to was made within the last 10 years.

 

[li-ion]

Most of them? Almost every decade had some music I really like and some music I really despise.

 

[catalyst8]

The 19th century.

It had Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

I couldn't agree more, though I'd say specifically 1813 for his 7th.

 

[Sir Ollie]

Do I really need to say

 

[AgentNein]

Tie for me between the sixties and the seventies. If you looked past the flower power junk of the sixties and the bloated overproduced crap of the seventies, you had rock and roll being bare bones and super awesome.

 

[Frybird]

Hard choice, but i'd say the "now" years, or the last 10 years, thanks to stuff that Dream Theater, Ayreon, Opeth and Muse did...also Wolfmother (wich i always considered to be a better fit for the 70ies, but i guess that's the intention) and Apocalyptica.

But the 70ies were cool too, as well as some stuff from the 60ies, 80ies and even 90ies...

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

90% of the contemporary music I listen to comes from the late 90s or this current decade, but a great deal of it is heavily influenced by the musical stylings of the 80s, to the point where uninformed listeners invariably guess that when I ask them what decade it sounds like it came from.

So while I appreciate the sound of styles from the 80s, I prefer the work modern bands are producing in that vein more than actual music from the 80s.

 

[GrinningManiac]

1685 - 1989

I like mostly everything in that period. Tchaikovsky (sp?), Bach, Miller, Armstrong, Saint-Saens, all the popular bands from 50s - 80s as well, all very good

 

[cuddly_tomato]

The 70s. Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple et all were great. Those where the days when rock stars acted like rock stars. It would be a scandal in those days if one of them didn't go to a hotel, snort five kgs of cocaine off a hookers arse, and then shag all the waitresses. These days Simon Cowell is a controversy. No wonder music is crap.

 

[SoxFan96]

Umm, I can definitely say the 60's. The birth years of rock and the time of my favorite band. Classic rock is were it is at for me. Nothing can compare to its sound. Also the begining years for Pink Floyd, another on of my favorites.

 

[ThePantomimeThief]

90s, 90s, 90s! Simply because music was at its most diverse and interesting. Sure, there was plenty of dross, but in every decade there was. You seperate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and you'll get the most diverse, interesting, and brilliant music.

Things have certainly become less interesting and more safe since, a lot of experimental and expanding movements seem to have settled in their niches and it's all a little bit boring.

Less interesting and more safe since? I can agree.

But what is more "interesting" and, I assume, innovative? The 90s with the birth of no specific genre, but a lot of experimenting in those already-established genres... Or the creation of "rock" in 60s and 70s? When it had not existed before that?

I can understand your criteria, but you just need to think outside of your own lifespan, I think

If you logic was "The music of the 90s I like better" I wouldn't argue with you... It's just that your current statement is quite faulty.

Well, the rock music of the 60s and 70s was all built upon the blues and jazz movements of the early 20th century. How about the rock'n'roll of the 50s? Plenty of it all derived from that, the rock of the 60s and 70s wasn't a complete invention. The Beatles for instance built upon blues, rock'n'roll, etc, the same guys (Robert Johnson, Fats Domino) who would influence Led Zep, etc. King Crimson's debut album has jazz all over it, just listen to the breakdown in 20th Century Schizoid man.

What I'm talking about in the 90s was the big movements linking together the previous electronic scene with the more 'organic' movements. Trip-hop, for instance - Massive Attack's Mezzanine is an absolute monster and one of the most original albums released. I wouldn't say it's necessarily as important as Led Zep II or Jethro Tull's Aqualung, but it's just as innovative. And at the end of the decade, Nine Inch Nails, previously an angry electro-rock band with occasional moments of post-rock and prog, released The Fragile - a massive, schizophrenic album that flits between anything and everything, whilst itself sounding hugely original.

On top of that, there were still some big changes. Jeff Buckley's Grace is still one of the best albums ever released, and not for songs like 'Halleluliah' but for songs like 'Dream Brother'. Over the decade you had a lot of artists that couldn't fit nicely into a category so one had to be made for them. Mogwai and Bark Psychosis got put into 'post-rock' whilst not sounding at all similar. Nine Inch Nails got termed 'industrial' without really sounding anything like bands like Throbbing Gristle, or even like Skinny Puppy.

I probably should have said that the scope of the 90s is what was most impressive. And of top of that the level of layering that went into the more interesting side of the decade. Sure, Hendrix had some really cool panning, but if you listen to Boom Boom Satellite's 'Push Eject' or Radiohead's 'Paranoid Android' then it doesn't sound quite as impressive.

Having said that, the 60s and 70s were damn cool. I got brought up on Yes, King Crimson, Cream, and everyone. In fact, David Bowie is the reason I started learning the guitar. They're both very different periods that achieved a lot in terms of genuinely interesting music. But, to me at least, there's more longevity in the 90s - at least, all my favourite albums are from that era.

 

[Loves2spooge]

I love music from the 60's and 70's (especially Bowie), but the 90's just had so many great bands. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Roses, Oasis, Blur, Reef, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Kula Shaker, Suede, Pulp, Lemonheads, Mudhoney, etc, etc. So many great bands! And they weren't afraid to experiment. Music today is terrible by comparison; I honestly barely pay attention to music like I used to, but I think I chose the right time to be ignorant, because from what I can tell it's not so good. Most bands are complete posers and it seems there's always a female singer round the corner trying to de-throne Madonna (but who even cares about her any more?).

There are so few decent performers around these days, the last great bands appeared in the early 00's, then it just became lost in a wave of imitators, and genres completely based around fashion (see 'emo'). Arcade Fire, Glasvegas and Deerhoof. Those are the only new(-ish) bands that are any good now.

 

[Blue Musician]

Any year. I love every year as long as it had good music.

 

[DustyDrB]

I'm in the Now crowd, though there is overlap with the 90's.
Wilco is my favorite band and has been playing for 16 years. The 2000s saw a big boom in folk music, which has become my favorite genre. This includes Iron and Wine, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird, She and Him, Ingrid Michaelson, The Avett Brothers, The Decemberists, Teddy Thompson, and Joshua James. Genre-bending artists are also more common: Santigold, LCD Soundsystem, Sufjan Stevens, Mugison, and TV on the Radio being just a few of my favorites.

There's just a ton of good music now, and it's easy to find music from all over the world in any genre. Of course, it's all a matter of preference.

 

[Small Waves]

Depends on what genres you are interested in or enjoyed. For Rock, it did well in the 60s and 70s, with acts like King Crimson, The Beetles, art/glam rock-era Brian Eno, Supertramp, Led Zeppelin, Blue Öyster Cult, Van Halen, etc. It was probably pretty sweet to be a rock fan back in those days. If you are like myself, an electronic lover, the 90s was a glorious decade, introducing such figures Aphex Twin, Global Communication, Mu-Ziq, Squarepusher, Daft Punk, Boards of Canada, Ceephax Acid Crew, Plaid, The Prodigy, BT, Cylob, Autechre, The Orb, LFO, etc. Granted, some of the names I have listed were around in the 1980s, but most of the albums they have produced were in the 1990s.

It all depends on what tickles your fancy.