What's your favorite time period for pop music? (1 Viewer)

Let's say 2-3 years. I've always liked the early sixties ('63-'65) with stuff from The Drifters, The Four Seasons, The Dave Clark Five, The Beach Boys, and of course, The beatles. The early '70's is a favorite of mine because that's when I got my first portable transistor radio (remember those!) and ran to the store every week for the latest "top 40" list. And the early '80's with songs from Shooting Star, Survivor, Whitesnake, even Soft Sell and the like, bring back good memories (an important part of pop music to me). But the mid '70's, say late '75 to early '78 are the best to me. Changes by Bowie, Jackie Blue by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils (very underrated song. Subject for a new thread maybe?), Foreigner, Bad Company, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and Frampton Comes Alive! The list goes on and on. And strong debuts by Boston and Heart as well. I also graduated high school in "77 (really, I did) so I'm sure that impacted my decision. How about you? the late 50's, mid 80's, late 90's, now!!? What's your pleasure?

67-68

I'm going to stretch it a little to include 80% of my favorite stuff. 1967 - 1975. Cream to Physical Graffiti by Zep. Also includes the best stuff (IMO) by Sabbath, Deep Purple, the Who, the Allman Bros Band, Yes, Genesis, Humble Pie, King Crimson, Bad Company, etc, etc, etc.

I like the early through late 60s. Probably the era Zen noted with stuff like the Doors, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, etc. Here's a list of many of the top albums of the 60s:

http://hem.bredband.net/b132682/1960-69a.htm

I enjoyed the 70's, not because I like the music of that decade the most. During the 70's there were alot of radio stations playing a big variety, playlists were broad and loose and requests were actually taken. Back then, they let hippies be DJ's and they let them play the best music to get stoned to!

Yes, KSAN here in S.F was famous for being one of the first, if not the first, free form FM rock stations around. Local stations did have much more control over what they played back then. But I didn't change to FM until sometime in 1975. From '69 to '75 it was AM top 40. Before '69 it was whatever my sister (9 years older than me) or mother (mostly country or adult contempo) was listening to. But the '70's did produce a wide range of music.

1982 - 1988

Easy....'77-'79. Punk hit and new wave was swelling, music was vibrant and alive. It was an incredibly exciting time musically! Here we have some newly arriving artists and some others who were at the peak (to me) of their careers...Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Blondie, Joe Jackson, The Clash, Patti Smith, Springsteen, Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, The Cars, Cheap Trick, ELO, AC/DC, Eno, Jethro Tull, Bowie, Boomtown Rats, Dire Straits, Eagles..and on and on!

I'm pretty much going with Kevin and Angelo. If I had to pick one year, it would be 1971. Ziggy Stardust, Fragile, Who's Next, ZOSO, Nursery Cryme, Tarkus. A year of freaking rock magic.

To add to what Rachael said:

I like the period before Clear Channel Communications (one of the many faces of Evil Incarnate). Before media consolidation. When independent FM stations existed (remember them?).

Overall, the 1960s.

I am with KCB on this, however I do feel compelled to expand a few years on each end, so make it '65 to '78.

On one end we have Rubber Soul, which along with Revolver in '66 really marked a transition to a different kind of Beatles, and on the other end we have Van Halen's debut. There may have been other guitar players in the late 70's that were his equal, but no one of that era had the impact on modern hardrock/metal that EVH had. I remember hearing VH's "You Really Got Me" for the first time on FM radio. There was nothing else I had ever heard before that sounded even remotely like it. A true watershed event musically.

...and man, is there some good stuff in between. Hendrix, The Stones and Beatles, the emergence of hard rock/heavy metal with Zeppelin, Sabbath, prog rock with ELP and Yes...straight ahead R&R bands like Mott the Hoople, Free, Humble Pie. And lets not forget Aerosmith's first 4 LP's.

As for categorizing music, I tend to reject the whole concept of classifying by calendar decades. I actually, I tend to choke on categorization in general...to this day, I don't understand the difference between Grunge, Metal, Hard Rock...oh ell, no matter.

The stuff that came out in 1960 is really 50's music to my ears, which could not be any more different than what was happening in 1970. What most people think of as the 60's is really from '64 or so to maybe '68. And the 70's really started musically in '69, and ended in '78 when the 80's really began.

IMHO of course.

BGL

1978-81 for the best quality *in depth*, particularly in the singles.

1966-69 for the best 'top ten' of individual songs and albums. However, before anyone eulogises about the sixties music too much, take a look at the charts as a whole. They *sucked* big time. For every Beatles, Kinks or Stones single you had a singing nun or truly awful bubblegum pop, novelty records or MOR schmaltz. Yes, the best was truly great, but the rest ... :frowning:

1970-74 for the best albums.

I am with you on that one, Andrew.

In fact, in the US, we have XM satellite radio, and thay have been doing these marathon sessions where they play every charting tune for an entire decade, end to end, with no commercials. It takes days to do it.

I took a long drive last week (11 hours straight) and listened to a good chunk of the 70's show. For every great, charting 70's song, there were 3 songs that absolutely blow.

It was fun to hear songs that have slipped from memory back to back with more obvious choices, but for sure most top 40 stuff from any decade will be pretty much populated by a lot of dreck.

BGL

1985-1989

1972-1977

Mid '60s to the mid '70s. That's when most of my favorite bands released their best stuff, at least in my opinion. I wish I was alive then to hear it when it was new.

1978-1984. The rise and fall of UK-based punk music and its more commercially acceptable variant, New Romantic.