Which decade was the best music decade in the last 100 years (across all genres)?

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best music decade

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That's a tough one, especially when its worded that way.

1950s

I'm going with the '80s because I loved the '80s.

The best IMO is ‘84 - ‘94

65-75

85-95

Best was probably the 60s because it shifted so much with the cultural changes. You can make a good argument for 70s as well.



As far as every day listening, I probably spend most of my time on the 80s artists.

Not even close

1960s. The decade of Motown, The Beach Boys, the British Invasion and great songwriters including Bob Dylan, Carole King & Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, et.al.

The 1960's freaking ROCK!

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The best IMO is ‘84 - ‘94

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Go back to 81 and add 95, and I'm with you

Read an article a few months ago about people's responses to "when X was best", X being music, economy, various things. Most of it tracked pretty strongly with certain ages. Music, as I recall, was pegged to the best being when the person was about 15.

Unless you really dive into it, so much is forgotten that it's hard to really assess. So like everyone else, I'll wing it too, lol. Note that I turned 15 in 1979...

But for me, the 1960s are a decade that really broke open so many possibilities in music that set the stage for a lot that followed. Rock obviously had major creative inputs from the British Invasion to the beginnings of prog and metal, Frank Zappa and other "art rock". The Brits brought the blues back to the US and helped revive or raise the careers of great black blues musicians like Muddy Waters, Taj Mahal and BB King.

Then for me as a big jazz fan, there was a tremendous amount of experimentation building on the established mix of big band / swing / hard bop in the 1950s. John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, Grant Green and others produced incredibly influential records in styles varying from avant garde / free jazz to funk / soul jazz, and the beginnings of fusion.

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Read an article a few months ago about people's responses to "when X was best", X being music, economy, various things. Most of it tracked pretty strongly with certain ages. Music, as I recall, was pegged to the best being when the person was about 15.

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This is not accurate for me. My favorite decades are the 70s, when I was a preteen, and the 90s when I was an adult.

The 60s are 3rd, when I wasn't even born