Which decade had the best music and why?

[Culprit]

The bands of the 70s played into the 80's who got their music influence from the 50's and 60's

A good era to be around.

[David]

[Skids]

My favourites are; The Rolling Stones, Elvis, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Cold Chisel, AC/DC, Aussie Crawl, Paul Kelly, Bob Marley, Powderfinger, Smashing Pumpkins, Talking Heads, Rod Stewart, Tom Petty, Nirvana, Roy Orbison....... what decade? All of them

[5150]

'80s
To be exact 1977 - 1995

[Dangles]

[Jezza]

Late 1950s - The beginning of the music revolution.
1960s - The emergence of great bands such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin to name a few.
1970s - The peak period.
1980s - The genre of metal became massive in the 70s but flowed on into the 80s with the emergence of Metallica, Megadeath, Iron Maiden and Red Hot Chilli Peppers to name a few.
1990s - Still going strong but hip-hop and nu metal started to become popular in the late 90s.

[David]

[stui magpie]

[Pies4shaw]

It's always interesting to see people give their view about the "best" band, song, decade, music etc. It is inevitably subjective and reflects taste, interest and attention.

With that caveat, I have always preferred the late 60s/early 70s (say, from '66 to 1974), mainly because the marketing push in those days seemed to be to find a new thing, rather than to identify a saleable form of music and keep replicating it. Also, the market for "youth" music was gradually making the transition from the "hit" single to the album, allowing for more expansive development of musical ideas. Consequently, that period was a kind of creative melting pot.

Also, not all periods are equal - some musicians cast such a long shadow that the people who come after them are inevitably followers, rather than iconoclasts. Thus, eg, Damn the Torpedos from 1979 is one of my favourite albums - but it breaks little new ground because Tom Petty seemed to be so determined to be Roger McGuinn (no bad thing in itself, of course) and part of the beauty of the album is that it is a reimagining of the 1960s guitar sound, rather than an attempt to be new.

By way of completely subjective example, I offer the following selection of albums from 1969. Its a subset of my personal collection (and I'm mindful that it's based on what I have on CD, since I have indexed, searchable digital copies of that), since it doesn't take account of a whole raft of brilliant records that I have on vinyl and never acquired on CD. The list is limited to albums that I think most sympathetic reviewers (no, I don't mean me) would rate as "5 out of 5":

The Band
Abbey Road
Blind Faith
Blood, Sweat and Tears
Chicago Transit Authority
Bayou Country and Willy and the Poor Boys
Crosby, Stills and Nash
Accept No Substitute
Barabajagal
Dusty in Memphis
Liege & Lief
Then Play On
Hot Rats
Live/Dead
Volunteers
Stand Up
Joe Cocker! and With a Little Help From My Friends
Second Winter
Clouds
In the Court of the Crimson King
Arthur (or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II
In a Silent Way
Basket of Light
Ummagumma
Let It Bleed
Santana
Stand!
The Velvet Underground
Tommy

I can't even imagine a bunch of songs (to choose one from each of those albums) as diverse as "Rag Mama Rag", "Here Comes The Sun", "Can't Find My Way Home", "Spinning Wheel", "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Born on the Bayou", "Down On the Corner", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", "Soldiers of the Cross", "Barabajagal", "Son of a Preacher Man", "Matty Groves", "Oh Well", "Willie the Pimp", "Death Don't Have No Mercy", "Wooden Ships" (the Airplane's version), "Fat Man", "Delta Lady", "With a Little Help From My Friends" (Joe's version), "Highway 61 Revisited" (Johnny's version), "Chelsea Morning", "21st Century Schizoid Man", "Shangri La", "Dazed and Confused", "Whole Lotta Love", "In a Silent Way", "Once I Had a Sweetheart", "Sysyphus", "You Got the Silver", "Soul Sacrifice", "I Want to Take You Higher", "Some Kinda Love" and "Pinball Wizard" competing for a listener's attention anytime after 1975.

If you think I'm exaggerating, try it for yourself - put those songs on a sequential playlist and see if you can really work out what year you're in.

[watt price tully]

1930's - when Robert Johnson recorded.

[watt price tully]

[watt price tully]

Things I like about the 1930 in terms of music:

* Gershwin's Porgy & Bess including Summertime performed by Billy Holiday.
* Besse Smith
* Louis Armstrong with scat singing
* Debut of Ella Fitzgerald
* Swing music
* Artie Shaw
* Duke Ellington
* Count Basie
* Leadbelly
* Woody Guthrie

* Good old Collingwood forever as we won our 4th premiership in a row (oops)

[swoop42]

What decade was Michael Bolton at his peak?

That'll do me.

[Pies4shaw]

Due to poor player development, Michael Bolton never actually had a peak.

[think positive]

Interesting read your post P4S

I hate today's music.

I have a few favourite artists, but favourite songs from many, and all over the place in years.

Elvis words and voice, amazing.
Elton John, ditto
ACDC
The Angels
Kenny Rogers
Whitney Houston
Rod Stewart
Gloria Gaynor
Reba Macintyre

Songs that always make me stop and listen
Nothing compares 2 U
Joey
Easy - oak ridge boys
Candle in the wind, both versions
Nothing's gunna stop us now
Fat bottom girls
Left in the dark
Turn back time

Imagine
Wind beneath my wings