The Smiley Smile Message Board

Which has been the best decade for music?
50's
60's
70's
80's
90's
00's

If you fancy having a vote go to
http://www.thisdayinmusic.com

What!! The 80's are winning? ::)

I tend to like present day best, can't help it. Nothing beats 60s and 70s Beach Boys of course, yet other than that if you're willing to look past what's going on in mainstream rock music I think there's never been a music scene as rich and full of possibilities as today's.

Definitely the sixties, but I think that depends on everybody's formative years ( between 13 and 17??, maybe earlier today).

The 70's!
Genesis
RUSH
ELP
YES
70's Beach Boys(early that is...)
Jethro Tull
Sex Pistols
Clash
Foreigner
the Cars
Gary Numan
Motorhead
Judas Priest
Boston
ELO
This list could go on and on!

Big Bri

I am torn between the 60's and 70's

the 70's were my formative years, but the deep love for music was set in my soul with the late 60's  music as a little kid.

I like music from all decades, but I've got a soft spot for the 90s (its a childhood nostalgia thing), and can't get "oldies". For some reason, 50s and 60s rock and roll and pop songs get me off like no other music. I went through a "classic rock" phase as a teenager, but eventually got sick of 70s rock. These days I pretty much avoid Zeppelin, Sabbath, post-Syd Barrett Pink Floyd, post-Satanic Majesties Stones, Deep Purple, Yes, Cream, Rush, Steve Miller, Foreigner, and all those other staples of classic rock radio, with a couple of notable exceptions (I still like Boston, Queen, Bon Scott-era AC/DC, Billy Joel, Elton John, to name a few, plus Sunflower thru Holland and Love You/Adult Child/LA Light BBs, of course). In the past couple of years I've been getting into a lot of "alternative", "indie", punk, etc.

Remember I am 32 so this is not notalgia for me. Since I was a kid I only really liked 50's and 60's music. Today I like some early seventies but that's about it. I am actually very torn between the fifties and sixties. The fifties stuff is pure solid blues, Rock, Country whatever you like. There were some boring MOR music but all the youth oriented stuff was great. The sixties had a lot of new sounds, advancements, maturity, just a lot of wonderful things about it. By the end of the decade there was a lot of pretentious stuff going on, but almost everything had a good feel to it. So I don't know I guess if I had to choose it would be 55-65.

i'm thinking if i could only save ten years of music from total destruction it would have to be 64-74

Good call, pre-mainstream glitzy disco and punk, not that I don't like punk and disco, I do.  Some creative artists and excellent music from 1964-74. 

There isn't one.

Funny how you can predict everones answers before you read them.

Tough to say, even when being subjective as possible.

I guess for me I would have to say that I think the seventies and eighties were the richest times for me. Instead of dividing it up into decades, I prefer to divide it into five year blocks...in which case...

76==80. And 86--90 were probably my favorite periods. I also like 66--70. Hmmm..

Maybe my favorite 5-year period is '64-'68. Honestly, though, it's so hard. I doubt there is a single year from 1958 onward without an album that's indispensable to me. And of course what is indispensable to me changes over time, making the exercise harder still. But yeah, probably 64-68 for 5-years. And the 60s almost certainly have the greatest number of albums I really like. But I feel like I'd be giving up other decades if I officially picked, so I just won't do it. I WON'T! I need The Chirpin' Crickets, A Night at the Opera, Graceland, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and A Satanic Panic in the Attic, to name just a few. Can I give them up for Pet Sounds? Nope. (And yes, I realize nobody ever said we were swearing off all other decades. I'm being dramatic. Cut me some slack.)

The 1230's were quite good, although I predict the 3020's going down as the best of all time.

The 1960s, no doubt. Motown, BBs, Beatles, Fahey, Van Dyke Parks, still spontaneous jazz, blues, country to be had... the major drugs explosion at the end of that decade was a nuclear catastrophe. Much of the 70s music has that cold, calculated cocaine sound. Punk was sh*t, really. Totally forgettable.

I never liked Steely Dan, by the way. Terrible.

Actually, 64-68 is a good choice, when you think about it, the way that Rock was still expanding in leaps and bounds in so many ways.
Sixties is the obvious choice, of course.

I guess the nineties is the one that's most indispensable to me, but that's more about me spending that decade immersed in the past rather than what was hip...in fact, much of hte music of hte time seemed to be obsessed with the past as well. The nineties kind of sucked, creatively in my honest opinion. Creativity went out the window and retro self-referencing irony took over. But maybe I'm just turning into an old man. Actually, I'm only typing this to put off working.

The 90s were particularly ironic, but I think most pop music is always obsessed with the past. it's just that they choose different parts of it, and filter it differently.

For production values, the 80s are unforgettably dire. Think: Trevor Horn, Simple Minds, and, um, Jeff Lynne/Eugene Landy. Perhaps they will become 'cult' again, but preferably after I'll have passed away.

Yeah, but think REM, Pylon, B-52's early stuff, the Smiths, the Cure, U2, , INXS, Crowded House, My Bloody Valentine, the Replacements, Husker Du...it was not all dire, jagged soulless synth pop.

And Trevor Horn went on to do a brilliant job on Belle & Sebastian's Dear Catastrophe Waitress a few (half-dozen already, actually ... jeezus, time flies) years ago.

60s all the way.

when I was a small child, I listened to 60s.

when I was a teenager, I listened to 60s.

as an adult, I listen to 60s.

notice a trend?

I actually do listen to modern music as well, but I just can't seem to get 'into' it.