[Closed] Best decade for music - clearly the 90s?

Allsaints? 😕

Your list. It seems to contradict the thread title.

I remember when all this were fields...

Er...I think you've answered your own question there! 🙂

Yes Jekkyl. Perhaps one of the sexiest (not pretty, not beautiful but sexy) bands of all time with a few very catchy pop songs. They were there to show how great pop music can be as were the Spice Girls and TLC.

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Haha Muddy and Shermer. I guess we do have rose-tinted specs when it comes to 'our' era then.

At the same time, I've got quite wide-ranging tastes and can't think of a decade which has come close.

The ****ing cranberries? Jeez.
Edit . 60s were best.

Creed? Creed? WTF? The quasi-religious Pearl Jam rip off. U2, REM, Michael Jackson, Chili's and GNR are from the eighties aren't they?

I'll give you points for mentioning Beck twice, but remove them for having Oasis and not having Soundgarden, Kyuss or the Screaming Trees. 🙂

Zippy - they had some great albums and great singles.

Dreams
Sunday
Linger
Zombies
Just My Imagination
Dying in the Sun

All great songs, backed up by other songs on their albums.

Funkmaster - well Beck were great.

I'd say U2 etc peaked in the 90s.

There are / were far too many great bands in the 90s to mention them all. Kind of my point 🙂

Even since posting I've wondered about a few more including some dubious boy bands and one-hit-wonders.

The 1820's.

Zippy - they had some great albums and great singles.

Any decade which saw the start of Beck and PJ Harvey has to be a good one.

Cranberries were a great band. I'd throw in Suede/Bernard Butler too.

Funkmaster - well Beck were great.

Still is, his last album is arguably the best he's ever released. I think every decade had it's greats, making it very difficult to pick one. If pushed I'd say 60's, mainly because the majority of bands you mention were influenced by artists from that decade 🙂

I think with that list and his alias he's really in denial and is secretly a Cold Play mega fan.

Sumblime

Bumslime?

You're forgetting Scatman John. 90's legend.

The 70's. You had to be there man ...

Van Morrison
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
Crosby Stills Nash & Young
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Wishbone Ash
Graham Parker & The Rumour
The Allman Brothers
The Doobie Brothers
Genesis
Pink Floyd
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Free
Gary Moore
Mike Oldfield
Rory Gallagher
Led Zeppelin

I was

The 70's continued

Sex Pistols
The Clash
The Jam
Blondie
David Bowie
T Rex
Joy Division
Hall and Oats
Chic
Kraftwerk
etc etc etc

I'd say the 90s too but then I was 13 when they started and 23 when they ended which pretty much covers my formative years. One of my friends is a few years older than me, unsurprisingly thinks it's the 80s wife's a bit younger than me, thinks the 2000s - you'd have to be a very knowledgable and very informed music lover to be objective and say any decade that wasn't the one that covers your teenage years, there's been some great music in every decade since the 50's I'd say but most of it is shit. The 90s was the decade of the terrible "house remix", Robson and Gerome , Mr Blobby and whatever Levi's was using in their ads at the time.

Yep 70s. I'm so pleased Mrs. May is taking us all back there.

Well I think it possibly is the 1990s, but I don't think you make a great case for it (to my taste anyway).

My Bloody Valentine
Mercury Rev (early material)
Screamadelica
Hardfloor
Underworld
Saint Etienne
Slam
Teenage Fanclub
Stereolab
Beastie Boys
Pavement
Aphex Twin
Kid Loco
Galaxie 500
& so much more dance awesome music in particular

The 60s and 70s were possibly better in terms of innovation, but the 90s is the last musical decade where any innovation happened in popular music. Most everything else since the 90s has been derivative to the point of imitation. Same goes for cinema.

Surely a toss up between 60s and 80s?

Creed 😯 😯 😯

You missed some good ones

Queens of the stone age
Prodigy
Portishead
System of a down
Foo fighters
Rage against the machine
Wu tang clan

And not forgetting the 90's gave us Ace of base 😆

I feel privlidged to have been there during the beginning of the electronic dance, rave era. It was great time, made some lifelong friends and will always remember with fond memories.

The 90s also gave us this gem

Damn that is an epic OP. Such a sustained study in mediocrity that it sort of resonates to read it, like a migraine.

70s all day and I wasn't even around to appreciate it - it's when it all came together. David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Ramones - you're talking whole genres of music coalescing around these bands.
Fact is yer Da bought better records and went to better gigs than you, and it's not even close.

Have to agree with Three Fish and Sandboy. Great musical movements tend to happen alongside great cultural changes* and since the late 90s, it's all been a bit corporate, over produced, recycled blah, blah, blah. When was the last time there was a 'reefer madness' or 'repetitive beats' type music scaring the bejesus out of politicians?

* or a ****tonne of drugs. Allegedly.

1966 to 1975 I'd attempt to justify this but I'm not sure I should have to 😉 (that's a decade yes?)

Best decade for music has to be the current one. All the previous decades are finished and we might not make it to the next decade.

any decade before the last one.

There's a bunch of artists in that first list that are less than great, grate would be a better word, The Cranberries being a particular example.
Left out are the likes of Belly, Lush, Curve, and probably a whole bunch more if I could only motivate myself to look.

The best 'decade' is the end of the 60s and start of the 70s, say about '66 to '76
I give you:
The best of the Beatles
the best of Bowie
Led Zeppelin
The Rolling Stones
Pink Floyd
Neil Young (After the Gold Rush, Harvest)
Hendrix
The Who
Bob Marley
ABBA (just about in that time frame)
and many, many more

Edit: didn't notice gauss1777's post, but above are some artists to justify it

The Best of the Beatles
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I am genuinely stunned that anyone thinks the 90s were the best - was the decade really that drug fuelled?

tbh when you include the spice girls and U2 on your list you really ought to have realised the paucity of your case

The correct answer is whichever decade you grew up in.

In terms of innovation its the 60's and 80's. 60's for the obvious Beatles, Stones, Hendrix etc. 80's for the birth of Hip-hop, Techno, House etc. Plus some quality pop.

I think the 90's was when it all came together and many genre's hit their peak, but it was the previous decades that laid the foundations.

The decade where you find all of the good songs from:

The Carpenters.

Bee Gees

ABBA

Blondie

The correct answer is whichever decade you grew up in.

The 70s and 80s are WAY ahead of the 1990s in terms of music. Jeez, the 1990s make me depressed just at their mention.

I will concede that Garbage was good, and that even if their music was tosh, the three women from the Corrs were very nice to look at.

Otherwise, the only thing good that came out of the 1990s was my eldest son, and Northern Exposure.

makecoldplayhistory
I'm not sure if the decade of 'best' music is to do with when you matured and began listening to music and being an active consumer.

What do you think of "Sports" by Huey Lewis?

decades are meaningless

Talk best time periods

For example, 68-71, 77-79, 88-91

IMHO

For the avoidance of doubt, MCPH, the best album ever recorded was recorded in the 1980s, and is "The Colour of Spring" by Talk Talk.

Northern Exposure (the club night) was bollocks. I waited 3 hours to get in and got bored in 10 minutes. Thankfully Dave Clarke was smashing it and Freq Nasty was playing as well so we got saved from the boring feet shufflers. Yay the 90s!

[i]The correct answer is whichever decade you grew up in.[/i]

The correct answer is the decade you are in.

You have all the music that is current now to choose from, plus 60 odd years of history to explore. What could be better than that?

I will concede that Garbage was good

DezB - Member
The correct answer is whichever decade you grew up in.

The correct answer is the decade you are in.

You have all the music that is current now to choose from, plus 60 odd years of history to explore

60 years?[img] [/img]
Ludwig is very, very disappointed with you Dez.
Not angry, just disappointed.
Mozart? Now HE'S fuming.

Well, it's pretty easy to hear what those old dudes were up to LIVE and IN CONCERT! if indeed that is your bag.
(I think OP was on about 'pop' music in it's various forms though. Rather than yer classical doins)

What do you think of "Sports" by Huey Lewis?

Most everything else since the 90s has been derivative to the point of imitation.

That's going some, to have heard all the music made since the 90s! Wow.

The correct answer is whichever decade you grew up in.

Seems to be more like "the decade you stopped listening to new music in".

That's going some, to have heard all the music made since the 90s! Wow.

I clearly stated that I was referring to popular music. **** off somewhere else for an argument.

Adding my vote to the 70's - with a few years either side.
The Tubes, Roxy Music, Cream, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Canned Heat, Little Feat, Dr John, AC/DC before they became stadium whores, the Stones in their prime.

It's all subjective but if you say anything other than the 70's - you're wrong....... 😆

70s were generally carp until punk came along. Overblown stadium rockers with bad hair and twee pop

Gotta agree with 70s.
All of the above, and we haven't even mentioned Funk, Soul, Motown or Hip Hop

Late 80's early 90's for me. Great time for Indie, Dance and Hip Hop all reaching their zenith.

I heard Fight for your right( to party)on Homes under the hammer the other day and remember the frothing of the press at the time, quite amusing.

I was speaking about something else the other day that kind of touched on this. Is there still a sub culture or is everything so accessible that it's all out there?

1970s easily.

Start of Metal, Funk, Disco, Punk, Prog Rock, Electronic/synth, Punk and probably more.

The decade I grew up in was the 1980s and I would say that was one of the worst so that theory doesn't hold.

You basically need a drug movement to fuel positive changes in music which is why it pretty much stopped after the 90's.

Probably one of the minority that thinks tj(again) types sense, but sadly on this occasion it's tosh. Add punk to franks list and you're there, though The Tubes? Really? Just pulled out Hissing of Summer Lawns and Blood on the Tracks for this afternoons listening............

This is one of the most pointless threads of all time.
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Any decade with Springsteen, so every decade since (about) the 70's.

Good point well made, Richmars.

[i]I clearly stated that I was referring to popular music. **** off somewhere else for an argument.[/i]
You said "but the 90s is the last musical decade where any innovation happened in popular music."
I don't get what you're saying. What is "popular music"? Is the only music being made music that is popular? YOu just can't come out with a statement that there has been no innovation in music in the last 20 years without being called out on it - cos thats complete bollocks. That's the only argument.

(apologies if a little sarcasm offended you enough to tell me to **** off 😆 )

I was a teenager in the 70s and I assure you until punk came along and shook everything up at the end if the 70s the music was naff. Overblown pretentious rock music you had to sit and listen seriously to and twee pop. That was the music scene of the time. Sure punk blew it all open at the end of the decade and allowed ska and reggae to gain some traction but really - anyone who was there knows how poor the 70s were musically

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/19750706/7501/

check out the album charts

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/19750706/7502/

naff naff and naff. the only halfway decent band in there is average white band

naff naff and naff. the only halfway decent band in there is average white band

Pink Floyd
The Eagles
10CC
Led Zepplin
Simon and Garfunkel
The Rolling Stones
Al Green

While I agree that Punk shook things up, that doesn't mean the rest were all shite.

I was a teenager in the 70s and I assure you until punk came along and shook everything up at the end if the 70s the music was naff.

It's all subjective though.

such as?

gobuchul

Pink Floyd - overblown pretentious twaddle soon to be blown away by punk
The Eagles - twee american pop pretending to have significance
10CC - twee pop
Led Zepplin - overblown pretentious twaddle soon to be blown away by punk
Simon and Garfunkel - twee pop
The Rolling Stones good band crap album - in their doldrums at the time
Al Green -Good soul singer

so one decent act there who is actually a 60s star

richmars - Member
 
Any decade with [s]Springsteen[/s] Cliff Richard, so every decade since (about) the [s]7[/s]50's.

FTFY

Pink Floyd - overblown pretentious twaddle soon to be blown away by punk

Despite having their best selling album in 1979?

Yup - overblown pretentious nonsense. Spice girls sold huge amounts of records but they were shite

Yup - overblown pretentious nonsense.

That's your opinion. Feel free to think that. As I said, it's subjective.

soon to be blown away by punk

This is not an opinion. It's an incorrect statement. They were not "blown away" by anything. Especially as 37 years later they have an exhibition at the V&A.

I like punk, but it was every bit as commercially-motivated as the rest of the pop industry, if you look below the surface you see it was a slick marketing operation which saw a gap in the market for "authenticity".
The only musical styles which kept it real are the blues, reggae, and jazz (but jazz is crap so doesn't really matter).

Its a completely correct statement - all the pretentious hair rockers like Floyd where comprehensivly blown away buy punk. I was there man!

Music needed a good shake up in 76 and received it. So a bunch of dinosaurs and their fans stuck in the past could not change - but the whole music scene did

I also liked punk. It was a breath of fresh air. But the twaddle it blew away was electronica and new wave new romantics crap. Back to two guitars drums and bass.

The "rock dinosaurs" trundled on, bless 'em.

new wave / new romantic was after punk!

the 70's, you had to be there, man

Whilst I was there, being but a wee nipper in music-less household I wasn't really aware of what the 70's offered. I had a Summer Mix cassette tape with such gems as Grease and The Jacksons. Not much to go on, in other words, but teenagehood arrived in the 80s and I began a few decades of music-making, mixing and collecting. 30+ years? Yes, I agree, it was the 1970's. it gave us literally everything from funk and soul, through multiple new rock genres( punk, prog, metal, fusion, motorik, etc) to electronic music, afrobeat, dub reggae, rap, and of course disco/dance. Not to mention the decade's singular contribution by the scores of incredible song-writers - too many to name. I love the experimentation, naivete and creativity of the 80s and 90's through until early 2k. But I have to say, the musicianship and ground-breaking raw talent of the 70s is, to me at least, the stuff of legend. Thanks to the interwebs I'm still discovering older stuff that blows my mind, and the greater deal of it seems to be from 1969 to 1979.