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

[Ted Lee]

hmm...i'll say approximately 1982 - 1989.

i probably bought more music in that time-frame then i have ever since. i think i may have been averaging thre or four albums (was i buying cassettes back then?) a week. for a teenager/college student, that's big dollars!

i absolutely loved the 80's man. i listened to just about everything from alphaville to zz top! those songs really do remind me of a care-free time.

but, i gotta say with this 80's resurgence, i'm starting to od on the stuff.

---

side note story. i think i had my fifteen minutes not that long ago. my company was having an 80's trivia contest. they had some sampler cd and was randomy playing snippets from it and seeing who could id the songs. i volunteered for my group and absolutely SLAUGHTERED everyone else. but the cd has stuff from romeo void, c-bank and trans-x -- so it was slightly challenging.

obviously they were all so amazed and impressed with my awesome 80's trivia knowledge.

 

[Brian L]

How about this for a semi-related tangent:

How much music do you listen to that was written before you were born? And lets limit the discussion to pop/rock....no classical stuff that was written in the 1800's!

I suspect this one will be pretty much age dependent, but I would also guess that people of a certain age will say no or not much, while newer arrivals will say absolutely (well duhh,....how else would the youngsters on the forum get to hear the GOOD stuff)

I was born in 1960, and with the exception of Robert Johnson blues thats been ripped off and adapted by pretty much everyone that came after, there is not really all that much stuff prior to that which I listen to.

I have a severe distaste for 50's music (a musical decade which ended about when the Beatles arrived, IMHO), and with the exception of certain Big Band music, I probably don't listen to anything from the 30's or 40's either (again, Robert Johnson excepted). And before that? Fuggedaboutit.

I think I came of age musically some time around '67 or so. It started with the Monkees, then the Beatles, and then with the discovery of FM radio around '70 or so, along with some coaching from some older cousins and their LP collections, the flood gates opened.

It truly was a great time to be discovering music, digging through the back catalogs of some of the big names of the day, but still enjoying and anticipated their ongoing output.

BGL

 

[Ted Lee]

to answer brian's tanget, i was pretty lucky.

i hung out a lot with my uncles (who were all into music -- their music that is). so i was 'forced' to listen to oldies and classic rock. i remember listening to k-earth (?) a LOT! so i knew all the stuff, from buddy holly to jerry lee lewis to beatles to floyd to moody blues, etc.

what made it worse is that they used to quiz me. who is this? what this song called? what is the singer's name? crikeys -- it was enough to make me dread (in a good way) road trips with them!

in retrospect, i suspect one reason i have such a love for music is because of them.

although i don't often listen to standards (is that 40's?), i do like them. they just have a wonderful romantic kick-back feeling.

i think i have 50's through 70's covered - at least in broad popular music scope. i doubt i know the more obscure stuff. on the other htf playlist thread, some folks made a 60's compilation - i don't think i recognized many of the names!

 

[gene c]

Born in'59, and I do like the music of the 50's (or was that the 60's? No, the 60's was the 50's up until...I'm still ) anyway, I've never really given music before, say, '54 much of a chance but I'm sure I would find something I'd like. And let's not forget that many of the songs we are listening to now were written much earlier. Some songs from the 50's and 60's were a derivative of songs from the 20' and 30's. And I know you said to leave classical out of it, but some song's were classical's with lyrics added. I do see your point, but for people of our generation, music before the 50's was way different than the music after it. But I can see people born in the 70's or 80's listening to the 60's.

 

[John Watson]

I've listened to almost everything pop over 40 years, 'cept for disco, and prog, and New Country.

Grew up on Cream, Doors, etc, but now do most of my listening in whatever genre that I like, without reference to an era.

Have a lot more respect for the '55 to '65 era (to me the early Brit invasion stuff was not that different than the 50's rock n' roll) now than I might have had back in 67-69. We got a little pretentious and full of ourselves in the mid-late 60's.

As for the second question, I'm really going for the music from before I was born. Not just classical, but the jazz-age pop of the 1920's, or the R&B of the 1940's and 50's.

It appeals to my imagination more than the obvious bump n' grind or teen angst of music TV.

 

[Marty M]

For me it was my mid to late teen years. This happened to coincide with the arrival of the Beatles in 1964. I was 15 in 1964. The period of 1964 to 1969 were my favorite years for music. We saw a lot of changes in music that was reflected in the changes in the USA at that time.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I'm going with 86 to 92. I was in high school from 87 to 90 and pretty much got into the whole heavy metal scene.

Paul

 

[Ricky Hustle]

Plenty! Even though I listed 65-79 as my favorite pop music period, i consider the BEST music to have come from the 30's thru the 60's. I was born in '64.

I spend the great majority of my time listening to Sirius radio's Standard Time and Swing Street channels, which play lots of...

Sinatra
Dean Martin
Ella Fitzgerald
Billie Holiday
Nat Cole
Louis Armstrong
Tony Bennett
Ray Charles
Fats Waller
Glenn Miller

...to name just a few.

For some odd reason I don't consider the old standards and swing as pop (although in it's day I suppose it was). But now that I have aged, I really cant listen to rock/contemp pop on a day in/day out basis. I need the old stuff, the mellowness of it just relaxes me.

So to some it up, YES I listen to plenty of stuff from before I was born. In my opinion, nothing will ever come close to matching it.

 

[andrew markworthy]

That's a lot of good songwriting you're dismissing there.

 

[Karl_Luph]

Saw this old thread and thought I'd add to it. I've really been getting into more big band swing stuff, (especially some of the Louis Prima & Keely Smith with Sam Butera and the Witnesses cds lately because the stuff on the pop FM stations here in Houston just isn't cutting it anymore, plus girls love to swing dance. Standards are always popular with the ladies for a reason,take notes kids,lol.I have a feeling big band swing music will still be around another 60 years from now,can't say for sure if hip hop rap will still appeal to people that long. Funny how today's music has pretty much accomplished in removing almost any romantic content from it. Just wanted to add that it's great to see Andrew Markworthy on the forum again,welcome back,your input is always appreciated.

 

[PaulDA]

68-75

 

[gene c]

Even though this thread only received a few replies, it's funny there isn't anything listed after 1992. I wonder if thats because of the average age of those who did reply, or the obvious neglect of rap and dance, which has captured most of the last 15 years, by us members around here (including me). Is the music of the recent past really that bad or was the previous stuff really that good? Should we be worried? Higher quality recording (DVD-A,SACD) is failing while poorer quality sound (mp3) is exploding. Is the same thing happening with the music itself? Movies are mostly special effects and third rate sequels, not much in the way of a story line or compelling acting. Is music also turning to smoke and mirrors, meaning mostly fashion and a few dance routines? I know there are a few diamonds in the ruff, but overall, the quality just doesn't seem to be there anymore. Oh no!! Have I turned into my parents?!! Who'da thought?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Here's a thought though: I picked '67-'75. Kind of ironically, I was 3 years old to 11 years old in that time. I "came into" music roughly about 1975. So I wonder if the people who *would* answer that they really liked anything after 1992 simply aren't old enough yet?

Or, and this would be a shame, maybe music for young people now is an entirely different thing than what it is/was for us oldtimers. Video games, the internet, MP3's, cell phones, PDAs, DVRs, etc.

 

[gene c]

Ya, I think you may have hit the nail on the head. Too young and too many other things to do. I still think current music should be more popular around here than it appears to be. I know a 13 year old who's learning to play the guitar. While he seems to enjoy it, his parents still have to pull him away from the computer to practice for an hour a day. And what does he practice on? Eric Clapton and Led Zepplin mostly. So I am concerned about the future of popular music. I don't think I like the direction it's going in.

 

[Henry Gale]

Following your premise to the letter, I choose 1933-1936.
Most of us favor the music of our youth and I feel more that fortunate to have been listening to Little Richard, Elvis, Jerry Lee, etc. in the mid and late 50’s. Likewise I seriously followed Cream, The Doors, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin a decade later. But if I were sitting in the Time Machine setting the calendar, it would be the mid thirties.
Robert Johnson? Hell yes, and soooo much more:
The Gershwin’s, Bob Wills, Jelly Roll Morton, Harold Arlen, Fats Waller, Hoagy Carmichael, Milton Brown, Blind Willie McTell, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington.
This music is not a curiosity for me, it makes the heart beat, and, they recorded “live.”

"Music is not an option." Sam Phillips 1923-2003

 

[Karl_Luph]

Good point Henry, alot of young musicians out there today are so spoiled with being able to sound so good because of the wizardry of the recording studio technology. No wonder when people go to listen to some of these bands live and they suck. (Believe me, this does happen)Arrangements of songs now are alot simpler too,especially in rap music,this can't be denied. As for the music in the 90's (alternative) hmm, I played alot of it in cover bands over the years and I can honestly say, I don't miss it. People were always wanting to here music they could dance to,lol!

 

[gene c]

Drum machines, synthesizers and computers can't be good for the future of pop (or any other genre) music. Not to mention lip-synching and "live" concerts without musicians, just a bunch of back-up dancers and a big karaoke machine.

 

[Chris Stainton]

1981-1985