then came disco

I still like it.

it can't be all bad.

I suppose it's like most genres though - some of it really was every bit as experimental as anything coming out of punk or new wave at the time (and, there was a lot of crossover between all three of those styles), but an awful lot of it really was funk music with all of the funky parts removed.

my thoughts exactly although later in life I have learned to think of some of the disco music as fun. Just not complicated or entertaining enough to simply listen to. You can't leave out the late 60's.

late 70s were great

Everyone knows the late 17th century had the best jams.

Why you laughin', though?

Purcell is pretty great, but the early 17th century had Monteverdi and Gabrielli, and the 18th century had Bach, Scarlatti, Handel, and more. You might even say that the late 17th century was the disco era of Baroque music.

John Dowland didn't publish "Lachrimæ or seaven teares figured in seaven passionate pavans, with divers other pavans, galliards and allemands, set forth for the lute, viols, or violons, in five parts" in 1604 because it wasn't awesome. He put it out there because it was.

It would have been awesome based on the galliards alone!!

I was a child in the 70's, but over the past few years I "rediscovered" much music from that period, and I love it!

Last edited Tue Feb 5, 2013, 10:52 AM - Edit history (3)

The '60s started out "twisting" and ended with war protest songs and social consciousness songs. The Mersey beat took the world by storm in the '60s and lots of bands used all sorts of instruments-- not just guitars and drums, but also trumpets, pianos, saxaphones, flutes, even harpsichords and violins, not to mention sitars and banjos. And the Billboard Top 100 for 1968 probably shows the greatest variety for any year, with songs from all sorts of genres-- including lots of instrumentals (Classical Gas, Love Is Blue, Hawaii Five-O, Time Is Tight, The Good/Bad/Ugly, Tighten Up, etc.), country (Harper Valley PTA), bubblegum (Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, Daydream Believer, Valleri), humorous (Judy in Disguise, The Unicorn), ballads (Those Were the Days, Abraham, Martin and John, the Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde), British Invasion (Hey Jude, Hello, Goodbye, Pictures of Matchstick Men, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Lady Madonna), pop (Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Mrs. Robinson), soul (I Second that Emotion, Dance to the Music, Stoned Soul Picnic), sappy love songs (Honey, Little Green Apples), hard rock (Born to be Wild, White Room, Sunshine of Your Love), even kid songs (Simon Says).

Those aren't music genres that will last, IMO. Already, punk & disco are dead. Although I did like some of the disco. Esp by the Bee Gees. Xover country was in the '60's, actually. It strayed on into the 70's, but it got its start and was at its height in the '60s. That's how Willie Nelson got famous. And Johnny Cash. And Patsy Cline.

Heavy metal also started in the '60s.

But also in the 60s were other genres, such as the Sinatra rat pack songs, rockabilly, and folk music (Bob Dylan) reached its peak in that decade.

It was a decade like no other, musically.

I fully suspect that The Superbowl Shuffle is the last hit from this novelty style we'll experience.

... and now that I've woken up from a comma I've been in for the last 29 years, let me just turn on the radio, and... WHA?!?!?!

That is why I only listen to oldie rock stations on my car radio.

The 70's to me was just disco shit.

So many bands that kick ass, are fresh, that care about things etc.

of course they aren't on the radio much, adn the ones that do make the radio feature the same lameness that all bands that made the radio feature (I am looking at you Mumford And Sons, the Avetts, Arcade Fire, Kings of leon and dozen other top of the chart types).

But if you look around you see that so many amazing bands are out there, and touring and selling out big shows and festivals. So many.

widespread panic, String Cheese Incident, railroad earth, Leftover salmon, Phish, Spearhead and Michael Franti, Del McCoury, Carolyn Wonderland, Yonder Mountain string band not to mention the various what's left of the grateful dead bands like FURTHUR all the Texas guitar pickers all the jam bands that bluegrass bands and the funk bands and the New Orleans bands.

then it's probably because not many people want to hear it.

The radio is a bunch of vanilla crap programed by people that know nothing about anything other than the bottom line.

If it is on the radio then it sucks ass.

are represented on the radio. Jazz, Big Band, soft rock, hard rock, pop, oldies from the 60s, oldies fr the 70s, music from the 80s, folk, elevator music, classic country, new country, soul & R&B.

It's crap to say that if a lot of people agree that music is good, then it must be bad.

This thread is about the best music decade. Who defines "best" as just what you and a handful of others think of as best? There is a universality to the decision that music is either good or not so good, classic and lasting, or a passing fad or appealing to a small segment.

There IS some music that is crap that a lot of people like. But most of the music that just a few people like...that's usually crap. That's why people don't like it. If music afficionados like it...usually a lot of people like it.

I listen to public radio all the time. KVMR.org everyday for hours. WWOZ New Orleans Jazz. IKMUD< KZFR etc. Community radio rock it huge and that is why I think right now is the best time of music ever. Look at all the festivals. Look at the healiners o those festivals and you never hear one second of their music on commercial radio.

Phish? Widespread panic? String Cheese Incident? Dave Matthews? My Morning jacket etc? Not exactly radio friendly bands there but they are top concert draws.

There are many ways to run across good music, and when you really take off is when you see who plays with the people you like, who they admire, who's songs get sung by other people, which other people's songs the people you like play, I'm talking about artists in "people you like," although we can always learn about music from just people we LIKE, too....

For instance, the mention of "FURTHER" above, they are, well, the Dead continuing afer Jerry died. How many people have played with the Dead? Who else does Dead songs? Who's songs does / did the Dead do? Who backs who up, who plays on each other's albums, who helps produce who's music... Further is great, so is the Jerry Garcia Band, of course an oldy by now but never a moldy, and these are many things I never paid attention to til now, either never had access or never thought about it. Last-FM and Pandora are treasure-troves of great music you'll stumble upon that you never would have heard otherwise, hey, it doesn't have to be anything like the music **I** like, either, that's the beauty of it.

Notice how when some weird, off-the-wall music that normally wouldn't make it to the radio gets there and soars to the top? People are hungry for music they can relate to, that people can pick up and play and sing along... that is why the Dead will never die -- they played this kind of music along with many, many other genres.

Who the heck was Delaney & Bonnie & Friends? Lots of doors to open just by opening that one. One of the first records I bought in my entire life was a '45 in 1971 or so called, "Never Ending Song of Love." That's not a particularly good example of what they can produce, but how did that silly song make it to the top of the AM radio? People were starving for regular music, that's why! (The flip side of that was called "Don't Deceive Me" by Bonnie Bramlett, I fell in love with that song some years before I ever knew what "blues" meant. And, of course I fell in love 4-Ever with her voice. She was also the soulful singer gal on Roseanne, still cutting albums and still singing her heart out today!)

WAS the 70's the best decade? I still think the 60's rule (example Ian & Sylvia), but of course there is a fuzzy line, not one that can simply be drawn between the 60's and the 70's, and things have kept evolving, we're not stuck with commercial radio anymore... gone the way of the dial-up party-line phone!

I just recently re-discovered Pandora and Last-FM after not having a lifestyle conducive to having a functional computer for awhile. Life is just too short to hear all the good music that's out there, much less enjoy learning the words / chords and singing along... and with the click of a button you can have the words / chords / listen to / watch, almost any song you want, by almost any-BODY!

Hearing music on the radio is fine and dandy too, IF it's a good station...

It went from Sinatra's rat pack, to Elvis and Chuck Berry rock, to the rise of crossover and cool country (Willie Nelson, Barbara Mandrell, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn), to the Everly Brothers, to early Beatles & Rolling Stones & the British Invasion, to Chad and Jeremy, to the height of folk music (Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie), to Janis Joplin, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top...... Quite a "trip."

There was no other decade quite as diverse, that I recall or have heard of. Although diversity doesn't necessarily mean better, all the time. In the case of the '60's, I think it does, though.

.... the mid-late 60s (british invasion, soul, psychedelic rock), the early 70s (progressive rock), the late 70s (punk but more importantly post-punk), the early 80s (post-punk, goth, bliss/dream pop), the early and mid 90s (alternative rock, grunge, nascent electronica), the early 00s (advanced electronica, samplers getting past beginner stage)- all great times for music all for different reasons and I'm sure everyone has their own.

Got burned out on it back then. Actually, the late 60s were the best.

The group harmony singing from the 50s is unquestionably better than the decades since. Heck, just groups named after birds have the remaining decades beat! Rockabilly reached it's critical and commercial peak. And of course rock-n-roll was never purer or fresher.

Though I generally stick to the above, there was also some of the hottest jazz, blues, bluesgrass and country artists at their peak. John Coltrane, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Hank Williams and Bill Monroe just to name a few.