Which was the most abysmal decade in terms of music?

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Just wondering what PSB fans think on this matter of great importance...

Retro.

[Palpatine]

Greetings,

Just wondering what PSB fans think on this matter of great importance...

Retro.

That's a very good, and difficult, question. I was going to pick the 1970's, but the problem is, IMHO, the first half of the decade was dire but then you had the second half, with disco, that was amazing. I know I can't, but I'd probably choose the last half of the 60's and the first half of the 70's, i.e. 1965-75.

[Patrick Bateman]

The 60s had The Beatles and The Kinks, the 70s Bowie and Pink Floyd, the 80s The Smiths and New Order, the 90s The Prodigy and Blue Swan. Westlife had their first hit at the end of 1999 so it has to be the 2000s.

[Palpatine]

The 60s had The Beatles and The Kinks, the 70s Bowie and Pink Floyd, the 80s The Smiths and New Order, the 90s The Prodigy and Blue Swan. Westlife had their first hit at the end of 1999 so it has to be the 2000s.

Good point.

[One of the crowd]

The 60s had The Beatles and The Kinks, the 70s Bowie and Pink Floyd, the 80s The Smiths and New Order, the 90s The Prodigy and Blue Swan. Westlife had their first hit at the end of 1999 so it has to be the 2000s.

I grinned!

[Nervously]

was there no music before 1960?

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

was there no music before 1960?

I stopped where I did because whilst there was of course music before 1960, there's not as much that seems to remain in the cultural consciousness prior to this time, and I didn't want people picking the 1950's as the most abominable musical decade simply because they could think of any music that old other than Elvis Presley. In a sense it also feels far too removed from the present day for comparative purposes... and if the 50's were included, then what about the 40's? The 30's? etc.

But for those interested, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_in_music

For the record, despite my love of Jamaican dub/reggae and appreciation for the punk & disco movements which would later mutually give rise to new-wave, I voted the 1970s because I found the pre-punk guitar-based music of the era and the preposterousness of Meatloaf and many others to be a cringeworthy embarrassment.

Retro.

[Palpatine]

Greetings,

was there no music before 1960?

I stopped where I did because whilst there was of course music before 1960, there's not as much that seems to remain in the cultural consciousness prior to this time, and I didn't want people picking the 1950's as the most abominable musical decade simply because they could think of any music that old other than Elvis Presley. In a sense it also feels far too removed from the present day for comparative purposes... and if the 50's were included, then what about the 40's? The 30's? etc.

But for those interested, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_in_music

For the record, despite my love of Jamaican dub/reggae and appreciation for the punk & disco movements which would later mutually give rise to new-wave, I voted the 1970s because I found the pre-punk guitar-based music of the era and the preposterousness of Meatloaf and many others to be a cringeworthy embarrassment.

Retro.

That was my thinking, too. Until disco, the 70's were pretty awful.

[Andie]

Greetings,

was there no music before 1960?

I stopped where I did because whilst there was of course music before 1960, there's not as much that seems to remain in the cultural consciousness prior to this time, and I didn't want people picking the 1950's as the most abominable musical decade simply because they could think of any music that old other than Elvis Presley. In a sense it also feels far too removed from the present day for comparative purposes... and if the 50's were included, then what about the 40's? The 30's? etc.

But for those interested, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_in_music

For the record, despite my love of Jamaican dub/reggae and appreciation for the punk & disco movements which would later mutually give rise to new-wave, I voted the 1970s because I found the pre-punk guitar-based music of the era and the preposterousness of Meatloaf and many others to be a cringeworthy embarrassment.

Retro.

That was my thinking, too. Until disco, the 70's were pretty awful.

Being old enough to remember it too well, I would agree!

[Danimal]

This type of thing is subjective of course. On the surface the 70s seems awful especially if you just go off what was played on US radio. But a quick check of the record collection reveals: T-Rex, Alice Cooper, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, David Bowie (even the stuff between Ziggy and the Berlin Trilogy is brilliant), and many others so the non-mainstream 70s were pretty cool. Even "classic rock" acts would come-up with the occasional groundbreaking track; anyone who has ever heard Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" will know what I mean. The 80s were brilliant hands-down. The 90s were a mixed bag, with most of the great records coming from acts originating in the 80s but the early 90s were a high-water mark for the industry with the underground breaking through to the mainstream, huge sales by fairly high-quality acts (even if they're not my cup of tea), and innovative physical packages (everyone and their brother were selling albums with bonus discs).
Maybe it's because I'm at the beginning on middle-age, but I agree with the sentiments stated above by Patrick and Palpatine that thus far the 2000s and perhaps the late 60s seem to be the biggest s**t stains on popular music. The late 60s really only had Sgt. Pepper to break-up all the hippie noodling and the decade of the 2000s is really just an age of prepakaged reality-TV acts. This decade is looking-up though with pop acts like Robin and alternative acts like Officers. Good stuff.

[AdamDowds]

I find the 70's pretty duff up until about 76.

The 90s were mostly good if only for the nostalgia of my upbringing/childhood, 1992 is pretty bare however.

The 2000s were both and up and down for me, the first half mostly rubbish with a few gems around but get to 2007 and there's loads of nice stuff going on.

If you're on Spotify, have a look at my sort of history of music playlist - starting as far back as 1939, and ending at songs released this month. 2013 and the 10's in general are looking pretty good so far, what with chillwave, indie and folk in good phases and the birth of synthwave. Even the chart stuff this year has been decent.

http://open.spotify.com/user/testiestto ... RCCfk8Qkx2

[transforce]

The 2000's generally passed me by. I don't know if it is because I tended to listened to groups I already knew and was set in my ways disinterested in new bands, or because the music was mostly pap. I favour the latter idea.

[DJ Pat]

I found the pre-punk guitar-based music of the era and the preposterousness of Meatloaf and many others to be a cringeworthy embarrassment.

Retro.

I thought punk was overrated shite, same as Led Zep/Floyd et al

2000s were ok in parts, but was outweighted by what was selectively drip fed to us by the establishment.

[the8thark]

Every era has had it's good and bad music. So I can't say any era is worse then the one before it.

The 60's did have the Beatles. In my opinion the Beatles are the worst band ever in history. (Yes worst is NOT a typo). But they had a lot of good music too like Cat Stevens, Velvet Underground, the Rocksteady movement (if you don't know Rocksteady is the genre of music that evolved into reggae) etc etc. The same goes for all the other decades of music. I have artists I like and hate from those decades too.

But if I had to pick an era, I'd vote the 60's or 1985-1995. I know 85-95 is not one decade. But for me the 2nd half of the 90's was so different from the first half of the 90's musically., I can't really compare the two. For me the split between the retro/older era and modern music is 1995.

[BlueSwan]

There was tons of great music released in the 2000's - just not necessarily the stuff that was topping the charts.

I have to say the 1960's. Sure there was innovation and there were a few extremely influential acts, but I would have a very hard time compiling a list of 100 tracks that I love from the 1960's - infact I doubt that it could even be done - whereas I could with ease make a list of 500 tracks from the 00's that I love.

I think the 1990's probably had the largest amounts of tracks that I love, but the 1980's had the very best ones. The period of 1987-1988 is probably my favourite two years - incidentally the very same years that PSB were "imperial".