Best musical era?

[Liam]

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but I've only just got around to doing it.

Not necessarily on this board, but I know a lot of people complain about the state of the music industry these days, and the last couple of years really. Whether it be pop-stars taking over, bland alternative music and general shoddy music, the music scene seems to have lost its way somewhat. In my opinion, its picked up in the last 2 years or so, but thats opinion.

What I want to know is what people think was the best musical era for them, and why? You can pick a decade, a year, a group of years, or whatever you want really. I just want to see what time people think music was at its "prime" or at least, had the most to offer to a listener.

1991-1995

For my personal choice, this is my golden era of music. As most people can tell, I'm into grunge (for some a dirty word), and this was the "era" of grunge. Bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots were making it big. But not only that, you still had bands like Guns And Roses around (releasing Use Your Illusion I and II in 1992), Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Blood,Sugar,Sex,Magic being one of the best albums about, IMO), Faith No More (fair enough, they were about at the end of the 80's, but got better when Patton joined them in the early 90's). At the end of this time period, you also had the emergence of Brit Rock, with Oasis, Blur, Pulp and Radiohead all releasing seminal classic in 94-95. Also, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the Deftones and Korn released thier first albums in 1995, which obviously led to a big change in the direction of music once again (even though I really don't like Korn).

On the less alternative side of things, you had Tupac and the Notorious BIG (not knowing much, I'll just say that these are two of the people that everyone brings up when talking Rap/Hip Hop), amongst other artists (yeah...I know fuck all about other genre's!)

I know a lot of the bands mentioned in the first paragraph caused the music in the late 90's to be bland and rubbish (due to a lot of bands "ripping off" the sounds and styles, especially in the case of bands like Nirvana and Korn, thus making the music bland and unoriginal), but at the time, when a lot of it was "different", the music as a whole benefitted from thier presence at least in the short term.

So, what do you think was the best time for music in your opinion?

Edited April 9, 2005 by rvdwannabe

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

1980-1989

Pop, Classic Rock, Power Ballads, 'Rap', Funk/Disco/Etc.

Basically it shat all over everything else.

[Malenko]

The best time for music is Subjective, but the ones i like the most are the 75-85 and the 93-98 for completely different reasons.

The 75-85 era had a bunch of albums who belong to my favourites nowadays.

The Clash released the clash in 77 and London Calling in 79, BlackFlag (one of my favourite alltime bands) released Damaged (one of my favourite all time albums) in 82, and they existed only during that era, since the band broke up in 86. The Bad Brains also released albums in that era, specifically their self titled album and Rock For Light (the first Bad Brains album i've ever heard). The Misfits released Walk Among Us, Jello Biafra's Dead Kennedys released Fresh Fruit for Rotten Vegetables and Plastic Surgery Disasters and In God We Trust Inc. Bad Religion and Sick Of it All which were two of my favourite bands throughout the 90's released their first albums in the first half of the 80's too. The Two Tone was also at its peak, with Bands like the Specials, Madness and Bad Manners.

Also, albums came out from bands like 7 seconds, or the Descendents also released stuff in the early 80's.

Oh, and Motorhead were also kicking ass during that period.

The reason why i said 93-98 was more of a nostalgia one. It was during that period that i started to really care about music, and got to know loads of bands i had no idea existed. Grunge was the "alternative" style adopted by the mainstream by then. I was a big fan of Nirvana although i never saw anything special in bands like SoundGarden or Pearl Jam. Skate-Punk was on the radio's low rotation until 97 where it changed to the third wave. Two of the styles i listened to the most at the time, and to be honest i still do, although not as much. It was also a time where indie-rock bands and britpop-rock bands were releasing stuff much to my liking. I never grown to like tv music channels anymore after that period, but i did back then, and i still like that music (even if not as much) so that period still gets a spot in my preferences.

[VerbalPuke]

In my very biased opinion, I'll say 1977-1985.

Alot of good things were happening in the underground music scene during this time period. In New York you had the Ramones, Dead Boys, Johnny Thunders, Richard Hell, and many more playing a stripped down version of rock and roll that would become known as punk rock. Not to be outdone, L.A. also spawned many great bands with the Dead Kennedys, The Germs, X, The Adolescents, and The Dils. This style spread out all over the rest of the United States and in many parts of the world, most notably in the UK.

The UK saw the Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, The Boys, Wire, UK Subs, and X-Ray Spex carrying the punk banner. The UK were just as abundant as the states were with great punk bands.

As time wore on, oi, street punk and hardcore became quite popular throughout the 80s. You had NY Hardcore like Reagan Youth, Kraut, Chronic Sick, Heart Attack, and Agnostic Front. L.A., like their American counterparts also produced some excellent hardcore with The Circle Jerks, Battalion of Saints, Red Kross, Black Flag, D.I., and others. D.C. is where many consider hardcore to have originated. This is where we found the incredible Bad Brains, Government Issue, Youth Brigade (not the same as the LA group), SOA, and Minor Threat.

While Oi was popular in the states, it never had the same following it did in the UK. Sham 69 would be considered as the originators of Oi, they would soon be followed by the Cockney Rejects, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, 4-Skins, Cock Sparrer, and the Riffs. More bands would soon turn up such as G.B.H., Last Resort, Condemned 84, Blitz, and Combat 84. The oi movement as mentioned earlier never had the same great following it did in the states, so US oi bands are somewhat scarce.

Of course one thing to consider is that I have left out so many other great bands. It would simply become redundant for me to toot the horn of every different scene throughout the world. So to illustrate my point a little bit easier, I'll list a few bands that I left out of this very brief biography.

There was avant garde punk such Black Randy and the Metrosquad (Cali), Geza-X (Cali), Feederz (Arizona) and Big Boys (Texas). Bands that were phenomenonal musicians in Husker Du (Minnesota), The Minutemen (Cali), and Nomeansno (Canada). There was also great thrashier sounding punk such as D.R.I. (Texas) and JFA (Arizona).

Unfortunately, my small little diatribe could never possibly do the scene justice. I've left out alot of stuff from LA, NY, Austrailia, Canada, UK, Japan, Florida, Detroit, and everywhere in between. If you'd like to know a bit more about these bands, or are interested in finding more bands that I did not list, shoot me a PM and I'd be glad to shoot the shit.

I know that 1977-1985 is kind of a long time period, but I can't think of any other time period of music that I care this much about. I can't think of any other time period with such an amazing amount of great music. In fact, I really wish I had grown up during this time period, hitting my peak years in 1980ish.

Edited April 9, 2005 by VerbalPuke

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

77-85

From Pistols and Clash to New Wave, Early electronica such as Kraftwerk and Gary Numan, and of course BLONDIE!

94-97

Or thereabouts.

Brit-pop man. It owned.

And Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Underworld were pushing boundaries.

[ClaRK! Kent]

I'll go through the decades of music I know, and suggest why I like them. I do really like most music, so...

1950s - Rock'n'Roll, at its grassroots, and blues also. Damn straight, white boy.

1960s - A close second in terms of my favourite era, because of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I'd say 1962-66 were my favourite years here, because of the God that is BOB DYLAN. Bow before him. Now. Also, there was that Hendrix guy, and Cream/Clapton.

1970s - You had Zeppelin, you had Sabbath, and later you had punk and stuff... but not in the charts. You look back and think "ooh, heavy metal and punk, cool!" but actually it was all disco and ABBA. The only punk bands who got into the charts, for real, were the Pistols and the unsung heroes - the Boomtown Rats.

1980s - People say that it wasn't good, and they have a point - Guns'n'Roses? Bleugh. The beginning of hip hop? Ugh. The start of dance music, Satan's synthesiser-tunes? Kill me now. But in Britain, where proper music is made, we the single greatest band ever, bar none - The Smiths. VIVA MORRISSEY!

1990s - I like Nirvana as much as the next person, but they were the only grunge band that didn't deserve to be shot in the mouth - how ironic. Oooh, I tagged Cobain, wait'll the Americans get all angsty on me. All other grunge was bad. Period. There were three good Britpop bands - Oasis, Blur, and Mansun. That is all.

2000s - I fear this decade will become famous for shit dance music and even worse R&B, but just outside of the top 5 in the UK we have some of the best music since the 80s going on - Franz Ferdinand, the Libertines (not anymore, alas), the Killers, and for once the Americans making good music in QOTSA, Bright Eyes, Beck, and the like. This decade also has Patrick Wolf, who I love to bits. He's great, if anybody else has heard of him do say, because I don't know any other fans.

Music is my passion, I love it. I'm also very opinionated about it, sorry if I offend anybody. But, come on, grunge was utter fucking bullshit.

RK!

[RPS]

2000 to Present.

Something makes the music more special to me when it was recently released. I own so many great albums from the past 5 years from so many different varying bands that it would impossible to put any generation. That isn't to downplay the advances of past decades, I just think that given the state of pop-culture [mainstream radio, muchmusic, the internet] has made music from this generation far more accessible than any other generation.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy; "Armed Love", "Survival Sickness", "The First Conspiracy", "A New Morning, Changing Weather"

Alexisonfire; "Watch Out", "Alexisonfire"

Arcade Fire; "Funeral"

Bloc Party; "Silent Alarm"

Broken Social Scene; "You Forgot It In People"

Buck 65; "Talkin' Honky Blues"

Closet Monster; "We Rebuilt This City", "killed the radio star"

Coldplay; "A Rush Of Blood To The Head"

Death From Above 1979; "Your A Woman, I Am A Machine"

Deltron 3030; "Deltron 3030"

Dillinger Escape Plan; "Irony Is A Dead Scene", "Miss Machine"

The Distillers; "Coral Fang", "Sing Sing Death House"

Division Of Laura Lee; "Das Not Compute", "Black City"

Dizzee Rascal; "Boy In Da Corner", "Showtime"

Electric Six; "Fire"

Franz Ferdinand; "Franz Ferdinand"

The Go Team; "Thunder, Lighting, Strike"

Gorillaz; "Gorillaz"

Green Day; "American Idiot"

Gwen Stefani; "Love. Angel. Music. Baby."

the Hives; "Veni Vidi Vicious", "Tyrannosaurus Hives"

the Horropops; "Hell Yeah"

Hot Hot Heat; "Make Up The Breakdown."

Junior Senior; "D-d-don't stop the beat"

Justin Timberlake; "Justified"

K-OS; "Exit", "Joyful Rebellion"

Le Tigre; "Feminist Sweepstakes", "This Island"

the Liars; "They Were Wrong So They Drowned",

the Libertines; "The Libertines", "Up The Bracket"

the Locust; "the Locust", "Plague Soundtracks"

And I stopped at L. So many great bands, so little time.

Edited April 9, 2005 by PunkRockPete

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

The Bravery, Futureheads, The Killers, Razorlight, Snow Patrol, The Zutons, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Hot Heat, Le Tigra, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Faint, Ladytron, Muse, Bjork.

These are good times indeed. Let us rejoice.

And I think the New Wave / Electro part of the eighties was MAGNIFICENT! So boo on you RK!

New Order

Depeche Mode

Numan

Kraftwerk

Blondie

Adam Ant

Duran Duran.

Magnifico.

Edited April 9, 2005 by ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster

[Guest Wrestling_Man]

1980-1989

Pop, Classic Rock, Power Ballads, 'Rap', Funk/Disco/Etc.

Basically it shat all over everything else.

←

[Liam]

I'm really surprised that PunkRockPete didn't go for a....well, older, punkier time.

And RK, I find it hard to see that all grunge bands are bad, and that there were only 3 decent brit rock bands. Other than the 3 you mentioned, you had stuff like Kula Shaker, Pulp, The Levellers, Garbage,etc etc. Your opinion on the 90's seems really flawed, but meh.

And although I still think UK music > US music, thinking that the only time US made good music is recently, is very flawed and narrow minded.

Plus Scandanavia probably owns all of them for actual musical talent band by band

EDIT: And yeah, I agree with CSAMH..I love the 80's stuff like New Order, Depeche Mode, etc etc. If you like all the new indie stuff, most of it is just a re-hash of that sound anyway.

Edited April 9, 2005 by rvdwannabe

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Yep Futureheadssounds like a cross between No Order and Morrissey. THe Bravery are basically rehashed and rethought and developed New Order.

Recent New Order stuff ain't so great though.

Pulp were great I must agree. Not as good as Blur but my second fave group from that period.

[Liam]

Pulp's "Different Class" CD is absolutely awesome. I didn't think I liked them that much, picked that up on the cheap, and it blew me away pretty much.

And Jarvis Cocker rules.

[Malenko]

I'm seeing New Order live in may 28th in the second day of a festival they're having here. I haven't really listened to them in such a long time, i don't know what to expect

[ClaRK! Kent]

The Bravery should've at least called their album "Honest Fuss" and given us all a laugh. They're ripping off the Killers, who in turn are stealing from New Order.

Most music is the sum of its influences these days, which is a sort of sign that it's all been done before but now we're just putting a spin on it.

My opinion on the 90s - I like much Britpop, I do, but the decade seemed to be populated by one-hit wonders like James, The Las, and suchlike, all of whom were never 'great.' If you're considering Garbage as Britpop, then they're in there too, but I wouldn't call 'em that. And I didn't like pulp.

As for grunge, I dearly enjoy Nirvana's last two albums, I do - but Mudhoney? The Melvins? Butthole Surfers? This was not good music, people.

I like New Wave, ChrisSteele, I do - and those bands are all good, but for me they paved the way for the Ecstasy-ridden, utterly-shite dance-filled part of the 90s music scene, and that annoys me. But I do adore Kraftwerk and New Order. Adam Ant was also good.

The 80s were the best decade, because of the Smiths. No more, no less. The Smiths made the 1980s.

I like all of the bands that ChrisSteele mentioned in his "times are good now" bit - apart from the Bravery, who are annoying, and Razorlight. Johnny Borrel is - and I know, I met him after one of their earlier gigs in Camden Town - a TOTAL ASSHOLE. I can't get over that, he's a fucking prick of the highest order. My friends and I were being quite nice to the band, but he was trying to score with my then girlfriend all the time. Tosser.

RK!

[Liam]

But then again, stuff like The Melvins were very influential on other stuff that is big now. A lot of stoner rock, stoner metal, sludge metal (which gets a lot of publicity now) stems from Grunge-ish bands like The Melvins. Whether you like it is irrelevant, as they were obviously good enough to be very influential. And you also dismmissed bands such as Pealr Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden.

And James and bands such as that are only one hit wonders if you don't really follow them. They have a few albums, some hit singles, and a Greatest Hits. Hardly the stuff of one hit wonders, I'd say.

And Malenko, New Order are good...thats all you need to know..

[ClaRK! Kent]

James had only 1 single though, that was remotely remembered. They haven't stood the test of time, I suppose. I like them, though, that song at least.

I'm not really into any of the grunge stuff that the Melvins influenced, so I'll cede to you on that one, because you clearly know more than me about it.

I dislike Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains, and if Stone Temple Pilots sound anything like the supergroup that their singer is now in, whatever their name is, they can't have been too great either.

I'm a musician myself, so I suppose I have a sort of "are they doing anything new/better with it?" thing that I have to answer yes to in order to truly love a band. Also, the playing has to be proficient enough for me to not be able to learn their back catalogue in two days, a la most grunge bands.

I think playing, on a semi-serious basis, sort of changes the way you look at music.

RK!

[Liam]

Grunge was never about being technically brilliant though. So not enjoying music just because it isn't "technical" enough short changes you some good bands.

And no, STP aren't like Velvet Revolver.

And lastly, if you want stuff to challenge you, listen to old In Flames, Meshuggah and DEP. Apparently (not being a guitarist, I'm not 100% sure), thier riffs are very hard or technically very good.

[ClaRK! Kent]

I'll track some down - I have a friend who likes that sort of thing, I'll ask him.

I'm aware that often being technically proficient isn't the point. Hell, some of my songs only use 4 or 5 chords, but I do like to get the feeling that the guitarist hasn't only started playing a month ago and is now raping a Gibson on MTV. It's an artistic thing.

RK!

[Guest George]

Late 80's Early 90's (Around 94-95 is where it ends) for me

Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Primus, RATM, Metallica (Their good era), Tool, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns N' Roses, Blur, Aerosmith, Bush, Dream Theater, Mudhoney, Paul Mccartney, Oasis, Pixies, Red Hot chili Peppers....

I just don't remember all of them, but it was a great era.

EDIT: I just read Raven's kid posts, and I have to say, I used to be like this when I played guitar. I was always looking for the super-mega guitarist who could fill me, and I found guys like Michael Angelo Batio, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani which were amazing guitarists, but they didn't had the harmony. They were skilled, amazingly skilled, probably the most skilled of all, but it is also required talent to make it fit.

Probably the reason why I switched to playing bass.... I found more harmony on those low tones than I do on whiny sounds on the guitar.

Hell, never close your doors because a band isn't "technically" good enough. Paul isn't the greatest bassist ever overshadowed by Billy Sheehan, Les Claypool, Jaco Pastorius, Geddy Lee, Flea, Victor Wooten, the list goes on. Neither George nor John are the best guitarists, and Ringo isn't the best drummer out there. That's why I didn't liked them. But they have more harmony than bands like Dream Theater.

People who analyze music are people who will never make good music. The best advice a musician can get is, dont be afraid to hear different things, be open to music.

Edited April 9, 2005 by George

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

I agree with Mudda totally.

The 80's changed music totally and gave us the king and queen of apprent 'pop' music, that being Michael Jackson and Madonna. Also gave us the debut of N.W.A which is still pretty huge today when it comes down to rap music. Just so many memorable moments.

Although the 90's come close for me. Just it gets dragged down a bit simply because while it had some amazing moments, it also had some downright shite at times. My mum always says the 70's are the best though for the classic mowtown/soul music that was around. True that the music was class back then, but I don't rate it better than the amazing 80's to be fair.