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Which has been the best decade for music? (1 Viewer)

drobbins

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Though they had their roots in the late 60s, groups like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who and even Neil Young did much of their work in the 70s. I tend to think of them as 70s groups. I think most people equate the 70s with Disco that came out in the last 3rd of the 70s.
 

TravisR

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My point was that what you were listening to when you were a teen (and for most people, that's about when they started having sex) is what you probably think is the best era of music. Whether you listened to the Grateful Dead in the 1990's or the Spice Girls.
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What you liked back in high school or college is probably still a favorite of yours.

EDIT: I'm speaking generally and not saying that it's an absolute guarantee for every person.
 

John Kilduff

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I'll give all of you 3 guesses as to what I think was the best decade for music.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

At least to me, personally.
 

Michael Elliott

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My favorite is probably the 70's overall but with my "critic" pick would be the 60's. Dylan, The Stones and The Beatles are enough to crush any decade of music. With that said, being a die-hard Dylan fan my favorite work of his comes from the 70's.
 

Tim Tucker

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Look at it this way... would the music of the 80s been possible without the music of the 60s?
 

Robin_B

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If you were going to judge which decade I prefer purely by looking at my music collection then you would probably assume that it would go like this

1. 80's
2. 70's
3. 60's
4. 90's
5. 50's

and you'd be right. The trouble with the 50's is I only really like the Rock 'n' Roll part of the decade which was the last half of the decade.
 

Kronosis

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Each decade had memorable songwriters/singers/musicians. And each artist from whatever generation they came from was directly influenced by someone else, either from a period earlier in time, or by their current "peers."

It's the "best decade" part of the question that bothers me the most. What do you want to base this on? Your personal favorites? Some listing in Rolling Stone magazine? Actual record or cd sales? Developments in technology? Of course, most base their answers on the music they grew up listening to. It's as simple as that. I grew up in the 50's/60's. It was an interesting time, that's for sure. Does that mean that I think that the 50's or 60's were the best decade? No--not necessarily. BUT, if you want to base the answer to your question on the actual sales aspect of music (i.e., most played by dj's, most played in jukeboxes, best sellers in stores), then it simplifies the question an awful lot: the answer would be the 1960's. 1966 still holds the record for the number of songs that hit the Billboard Hot 100 charts. 743 songs hit the charts in 1966. Now, compare that to, let's say, 1994. In 1994, 336 songs hit the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Breaking down just those numbers by year:
1955--248
1956--500
1957--483
1958--525
1959--576
1960--601
1961--681
1962--676
1963--658
1964--714
1965--718
1966--743
1967--738
1968--684
1969--689
1970--634
1971--620
1972--584
1973--530
1974--492
1975--561
1976--527
1977--468
1978--451
1979--475
1980--470
1981--408
1982--424
1983--452
1984--434
1985--404
1986--397
1987--398
1988--386
1989--392
1990--375
1991--385
1992--370
1993--345
1994--336 (my records stop here)

Now, what do those numbers actually show? Well, in a way, they show the rise and fall of AM Top 40 format radio. And if you dig really deep into those numbers, you can find the advent of FM radio and so so many changes within the medium itself.

The 1950's was the time for Tin Pan Alley, Brill Building song writers like Leiber-Stoller, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, and so many more. This was their true hey-day. Then, in 1964, along comes this British band called the Beatles, who began writing their own songs. More and more artists began writing their own stuff as well. That's where the real money was. Yeah, you got paid for recording and selling records, but the REAL money came from writer credits. That really began a new phase with the Beatles.

In my lifetime, I've watched as music went from 78's to 45's to stereo (1957) to albums to quadraphonic to 8-track tapes to cassette tapes to reel-to-reel to cd's to mp3's and flac files and whatever else is out there today. But that's really getting off topic.

I guess it all boils down to this for me: I cannot answer your question. Each decade has shown us all some great music, as well as innovations in technology. Take Fleetwood Mac for example. I began listening to Fleetwood Mac in 1968. Look at the changes just that one band went through. Did I like them in 1968? Yes. Did I like them in 1975? Yes. Did they play the same style of music in 1975 that they played in 1968? No. Were they as popular in 1968 as they were in 1975? No. Even though they'd been around in the 60's, they really didn't catch their "mass appeal popular" groove until 1975. Hell, that in itself is a lifetime for some bands that have come and gone.

I guess if I had to answer your question, I would honestly have to say "all of them."

Edited by Kronosis - 7/4/2009 at 05:08 am GMT
Edited by Kronosis - 7/4/2009 at 06:43 pm GMT
Edited by Kronosis - 7/4/2009 at 06:53 pm GMT
 

AnthonyC

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But couldn't that also be a case against the previous decades; that there were more "disposable" songs making and then quickly falling off the chart? Not that I would inherently agree with that, just playing the flip side.
 

Kronosis

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Originally Posted by AnthonyC Of course. But I think more importantly, it's a statement that (in the 60's) there were an awful lot of record companies looking for the next "Beatles" or "Stones" or "________________" (fill in the blank with whomever you like).

And that's they key: it's a statement of how many records were once produced by Indie labels (independent record labels), as well as their demise. There were a HECK of a lot of Independent Labels in the 60's. I think that's part of the reason there were so many songs that hit the HOT 100 back then.

Edited by Kronosis - 7/4/2009 at 06:40 pm GMT
 

Todd H

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For me, I'd have to go with the 90's. I was in college at the time and so many great albums came out in the early 90's. Some highlights for me include:

RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
Rage Against The Machine self-titled debut
Alice in Chains - Facelift and Dirt
Nirvana - Nevermind
Faith No More - Angeldust
Pearl Jam -Ten
Green Day - Dookie
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

And I could go on and on...
 

TommyJD

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The 70s all the way.As my wife and daughter tell me:I'm stuck in the 70s music wise.Era of some of the greatest music of all time by some of the all time greatest rock bands-Led Zeppelin,Neil Young,Deep Purple,The Clash,The Ramones,Pink Floyd,Genesis,Queen,Jethro Tull,The Who,Eric Clapton,Cheap Trick,ELP,Mott The Hoople,The Cars,Elvis Costello,The Rolling Stones,The Faces,Springsteen,Elton John,Aerosmith,The Eagles,Lynryd Skynrd,Black Sabbath,Bob Marley,Alice Cooper,The Allmann Bros etc...
 

gene c

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I'd have to say the '70's as well. If it were taken away from me I could do without the music of the 80's. Lots of great stuff came out in the '80's but I could survive. Same for the '50's but it would be a harder pill to swallow. I was born in 1959 and my sister was 9 years older than I so music has been around for as long as I can remember. Sad to say losing the '90's wouldn't be such a great loss to me. Not that there wasn't a lot of fine music released then, just that my interest in new music, for whatever the reason, started to wain. In fact, I think it was sometime in October of '93 when I realized that I was no longer "hip" ) and ease back into the recliner.

 

Alan Tully

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I was a teenager in the 60's. The 60's must be the best decade, even though my favorite is the 70's. It all started going down hill fast in the 80's, & from the 90's on...forget it!
 

drobbins

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I think one interesting thing, is watching my 15 yr old daughter enjoy today's pop music. She listens to it nonstop and changes my radio when we are in the car. I believe that she can not stand my music (60s-80s) as much as I can not stand her music. I let her change the station so I can keep up a little with whats "in" as well as to see what she likes. Being as there is not much "music" to it, only the beat, she enjoys and sings along to the lyrics. She changes through channels and chooses a 1 month or newer song over a 1 year old song, even though she really enjoyed that song when it came out. Where the music that I like, I will probably be listening to the same stuff until I die, she treats her music as a fad and it is disposable. She doesn't want music that will last a lifetime, so I don't think quality is that important to her. What I think is really strange is her favorite hobby is playing the French Horn and she is very active in the school band. So she in educated in "real" music and all of its intricate interactions between the instruments, but she chooses the music with the mindless beat. She plays classical, but never listens to it.
 

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