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. Of course, you extend this into the next decade when you have the money to go to gigs and bars and clubs but tend to hear how this second ‘stage’ of music has moved on from the first.

I give you:

Alanis Morisette
R.E.M.
Oasis
Blur
Weezer
Nirvana
Smashing Pumpkins
Radiohead
Green Day
Cypress Hill
Guns ‘N Roses
U2
No Doubt
Beck
Eminiem
The Cranberries
Aerosmith
Michael Jackson
Goo Goo Dolls
Chillies
Beck
PJ Harvey
Chemical Brothers
Counting Crows
Snoop Dogg
Spice Girls
TLC
Rage Against The Machine
All Saints
Clapton
The Verve
Jamiroquai
Nick Cave
Dandy Warhols
Creed
Barenaked Ladies
Less Than Jake
No Doubt
Reel Big Fish
Sumblime
Prodigy
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Moby
Flaming Lips
Pixies
Pulp

…

Even Neil Young’s best album “Ragged Glory” was released in the nineties!

I’ve had this tab open all day, adding bands as I remember. I’m now a couple of whiskeys (the ‘e’ was deliberate) and think I’ve got a finished list.

Do we favour the era when we come of age or was I truly blessed to have come of age in the nineties?

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.

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 **** 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.

You are of course entitled to your opinion even if it is wrong!

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
[video]https://youtu.be/1m9n5Uv0bp0[/video]

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 f**ktonne 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

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