Which decade had the best music?

[Jeff G]

I'm curious to see what decade you feel had the best music.

For me it's really a tough choice betweens the 60's & 80's.

The 60's turned out some great hit' and had some of the musics best bands/artisits of all time including the Beattles and Elvis. I remeber sitting around many camp fires as a kid listening to music from the 60's with my parents and many of my favorite songs come from this decade.

The 80's on the other hand was a very unique time with very fun music. I grew up in the 80's and enjoyed everything from INXS to Metellica. My favorite music tended to be hair bands including GnR, Poison, Meteallica & Def Leppard. It's not only rock that seperates it for me, I can listen to an 80's channel and I like Simple Minds, Wang Chung, early U2, Michale Jackson's Thriller album, Men at Work, Steve Winwood, Crowded House etc....

My vote goes to the 80's by a slim margin.

[DWHUBBY]

This should prove to be a very interesting and highly subjective discussion! I have to go with the 80's though. I was a child of the 70's and 80's and loved the hair bands of the 80's. I saw a good number of them in concert. My favorite has to be Def Leppard though. Saw them 4 times in 3 years in Portland and OOB. The 80's also had a good number of "one hit wonders". I occasionally watch some of the old videos from the 80's on VH1, they bring back a lot of memories.

[RAIDER]

Has to be the 80s for me ... ( brilliant question by the way :thumbsup: )
It was the height of U2 and Springsteen and Punk era

[IamBelle]

I voted for the 80's! I was born in the early 90's and all my parents played was 80's music. (Plus, being a drummer, I love to jam to all the rock songs)

[drummerboy]

My 'decade' would prabably be mid-60s to mid-70s, but I like a lot of individual hits from just about any of the decades listed. (Probably helps that I've lived through all but the pre-50s.)

[ASweetLov]

I absolutely love 50's music and 80's music:thumbsup:

[ChipnDaleGal]

I picked the 70's, but it would be more accurate for me to have my decade span the last half of the 70's and the first half of the 80's. Def Leppard, Foreigner, Cheap Trick, Queen, etc were all my style.

[AdventurerKim]

I voted for the 80's since that's when I grew up. Since around 1992-1993, music for me took a serious down-turn for the worst. Grunge turned me off, and many of my favorite bands and singers put out albums that didn't compare to previous ones or broke up. I watched 120 Minutes on MTV every Sunday (taped it if I couldn't stary up!) and miss that show bc that's where I discovered a lot of bands and songs I still love! I never remember to watch the reruns Sunday nights on VH1 Classic, although they're not the same without Dave Kendall's fun reports. I'm writing this while wearing my Cure "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" t-shirt that is probably now 20 years old! Ahhh...the good old days of good music!

[MegaDisney]

The 80's were totally tubular!

The 90's? Gag me with a spoon! :blush:

Great thread BTW!

[PirateLover]

I Can't even choose. I like so many songs from every decade, all the way back to the 20s.
The 90s were "my" decade. I still love some good grunge. I have a feeling though, based on past threads and the average age of posters, that the 80s will win this challenge.

[pogo]

I love it all, but I'm especially fond of music from the 60's. :thumbsup:

My musical development really grew in the 60's and vaulted me into traveling in the 70's, 80's & 90's. :drummer: I've performed everything from rock to jazz with the modern country sound being my favorite. :yes:

Good subject Jeff ! :D

[The Reservoir Dog]

What a fantastic question. :thumbsup:

It's one of those where the more you think about it the more you change your mind.

The 50's. The birth of Rock 'n Roll. Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran. 50 years on and it still sounds great today.

The 60's. The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Motown (could go on all day)

The 70's. Springsteen, Bowie, Queen, The Clash.

The 80's. Stadium Rock. The birth of MTV. Big Haired Rock Bands.

The 90's. To me started off well but declined into really what we have now.


I think alot of people will go for the decade they grew up in so in my case it would be the 80's but I feel that the 60's influenced so much of the music we still love today so today I will vote for the 60's but I'll probably watch VH1 classics tonight and completely change my mind. :)

[alphamommy]

This is a hard question, because they all have their good points.

If I went with the decade when I grew up, it would be the 70s, and there's a lot to love from that time. I like a lot of 70s pop, especially the obscure more songs like "The Night Chicago Died", "Billy, Don't be a Hero", "One Tin Soldier", etc.

However, I voted for the 80s. I love the fun, campy style of early videos, and I'm a sucker for one hit wonders (lots in the 70s too, but I digress). The 80s featured something I call "The Second British Invasion", not as impressive perhaps as the first, but still pretty cool.

IMHO, starting in the mid-90s, with a few exceptions, music has declined.

[Mackflava99]

Old school Rap from the 80's was the best-

Sugar hill
Kurtis blow
Kool Moe Dee
Fat Boys
RUN DMC

[J9]

This was also a tough choice for me between the 60s and the 80s. I love them both.

In the end, I went for the 60s. Between the Beatles, Motown, Dusty Springfield, the Four Seasons, etc etc, you can't lose. These were all upbeat songs that you couldn't help but tap your feet and sing along. In fact, when I was little, my parents listened exclusively to the oldies station on the radio. I didn't have a radio of my own until I started driving in high school, so up until the age of 17, 60s eras music was pretty much all I listened to! (You can imagine how uncool I was in grade school and high school! LOL)

Ok, so I lied a little bit. Every once in a while my dad would pop in Thriller or the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack. So I grew up with that too. Pure 80s was actually the first CD I ever owned. (More Pure 80s was the second...LOL).

I've thought about it, and honestly I think why I like the 60s and the 80s so much is the British-ness of it. Think about it - a lot of the groups in these two decades were British. And they were Bristishingly awesome.

PS - The 70s were a pretty close 3rd. I LOVE LOVE LOVE disco music! (CDs #3 through 5? You guessed it - Pure Disco, Pure Disco 2, and Pure Disco 3! LOL) Yeah, I'm pretty much the weirdest 25 year old there is! hahaha!

[elmjimmlm]

It has to be the 80s for me...Bryan Adams and all the Hair Bands...It does make me feel old when my kids think of the 80s as oldies...I guess I know how my Mom felt when I thought that the 50s were oldies and cringed every time I had to listen to it...:blush:

[WDWFREAK101]

It's got to be 80's. I feel that the best entertainment occured in the 80's. Regan as president, everything was looking great! Classic movies Back To The Future, Indiana Jones etc...
I just got an MRI today and I asked for 80's rock music instead of this rap garbage that we get now.

867-5309 has to be one of my favorite songs.

I miss the 80's....:(

[castlegirl]

Having graduated HS in 1983 and having watched MTV from its debut, my vote is for the 80's also.

I can remember anticipating the showing of "Thriller" on MTV for the first time!

I can also tell my DS14 is a product of 80's parents. He likes Queen, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, etc. Not the news stuff, but the 80's stuff.

[RenDuran]

The 80's were totally tubular!

The 90's? Gag me with a spoon! :blush:

I even had a valley girl quiz book and have the "degree" I earned in my scrapbook!

Your reply like cracked me up!

I voted for the 80's!

[NJDad]

Have a feeling this poll will be another way of asking "How old are you?"

Maybe if everyone wasn't allowed to vote for the decade in which they graduated high school?

[WDWRox]

I don't think you can necessarily tie people's replies to their age. Case in point: I'm in my early 30's and I selected the 60's as having the best music. I do love 80's music, but it just isn't as good as the "golden oldies" of the 60's.

[VolMickey]

80s fer sure, like ya know?

[J9]

I don't think you can necessarily tie people's replies to their age. Case in point: I'm in my early 30's and I selected the 60's as having the best music. I do love 80's music, but it just isn't as good as the "golden oldies" of the 60's.

I agree. I also chose the 60s, but I wasn't born until the tail end of 82!!!

I graduated high school in 2000, and I would never ever ever in a million years pick the 90s or the 00s over the 60s, 70s, or 80s!! (Although, in the 00s' defense, it HAS gotten significantly better since 2004 or so!)

[henry.james.s]

If there was a option for mid 60's to mid 70's I'd go for that.
But for the poll..give me the 70's (rock)

Coolest music...Motown :number1:

[Ian]

:jaw:

I'm flabbergasted the 80's are winning over the 60's. The decade that produced absolutely legendary bands like the Beatles, the Stones, and the Who is clearly the greatest musical decade of all time.

The 80's produced more one-hit wonders (outside of U2) than any other decade. 80's music is largely terrible. :ack:

[alphamommy]

Have a feeling this poll will be another way of asking "How old are you?"

Maybe if everyone wasn't allowed to vote for the decade in which they graduated high school?

I don't like this idea. I graduated in 1981, so I couldn't vote for the 80s? I was in college and working the rest of the decade, so why couldn't I vote for the music that was the soundtrack of my 20s?

[Minnie Imagineer]

well I am not too familiar with anything older than 90's, so I'd have to say current decade

[pianobabe]

I could not choose between 50's, 60's, and 80's, so I had to do the old-fashioned eenie, meenie, minie moe method. They are all so wonderful. The 50's have an innocence to the sounds and words. The 60's (especially late) start getting into the deeper political and social idealism. The 80's...just rocks.

DS is surprised the 90's, with the beginning of grunge, hasn't gotten any votes. I am bringing him up right though, with a deep love for all music (especially rock).

[Jeff G]

:jaw:

I'm flabbergasted the 80's are winning over the 60's. The decade that produced absolutely legendary bands like the Beatles, the Stones, and the Who is clearly the greatest musical decade of all time.

The 80's produced more one-hit wonders (outside of U2) than any other decade. 80's music is largely terrible. :ack:

It's funny that you say that, I had an a disagreement with a friend as to which decade was better(it's what prompted this thread). He was 100% for th 60's and he says the 80's was one of the worst decades.

I agree that the 60's is a great decade for music but I couldn't agree with his assesment of the 80's.

The 80's did see a lot of one hit wonders but there were many great groups/artists besides just U2 that came from this decade that are relevant, to name a few; Guns N' Roses, The Police, Prince, Madonna.

[Ian]

As much as I like Prince's music, I'm not ready to slap the "great" tag on him. And Madonna, to me, is nothing but another manufactured teen pop-star with some longevity. She's like Brittney on steroids. :ack:

The Police and Guns I'll give you, but even so ... that's three awesome bands from one decade as opposed to probably a dozen or more from the 60's ... The Beatles, the Stones, the Doors, the Who, Jimmy Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Cream, CSN, Janis with Big Brother ... the list goes on and on and on ...

Not to mention that the 80's bands were stepping on the shoulders of the giants of the 60's who had paved their way.

The late 50's/early 60's was the definitive time period in American musical history. The birth of rock and roll and the era that allowed the bands of the 80's to exist at all.

Of course, if you truly want to trace the roots of rock you need to go back to the blues and jazz greats of a decade earlier. They're the ones that influenced early rockers like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard.

[diz_girl]

Although I LOOOOVE 80's music and would have voted for that decade based on my graduation date (Philadelphia's Archbishop Ryan HS for Girls class of '87), I voted for the 70's.

Yes, the 60's had some incredible music (Motown & Beatles), and music evolved significantly during that decade. However, it evolved just as much during the 70's.

Many bands and artists that started out in the 60's didn't put out their best music until the 70's (The Who, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd, etc.) I mean, a lot of the music these bands put out in the 60's sounds like it was made in the 60's (Stevie's Signed, Sealed, Delivered is exempted from this statement), but what they put out in the 70's sounds timeless.

Then there was all of the R&B music, as well as punk and post-punk. Also, U2 put out their first record in 1979. Then there's Joy Division, precursor to New Order, who formed in the late 70's, and ushered in the post-punk era of British 80's music that a lot of people probably voted for.

The 80's had a lot of quirky music, so that's probably what got all of the votes. C'mon, I know that all of you Falco fans just voted for 'Der Komissar'.

[Dixie Springs]

I voted 80's, though I graduated high school in the 70's (right around the evil period of Disco).

[RedSoxFan]

I voted for the 70's -- I grew up in the 70's. But I do love the 80's long haired bands: Def Leppard (my favorite), Bon Jovi, Winger, Poison, etc.

[indytraveler]

70's music is what I remember most '80's were from my HS College years. Had to go with 70's because it had more of a variety from the beginning to the end. (just throw out disco)