re: Is the 90's the best decade for music?

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Actually this sort of attitude is killing the board

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My board is fine, mon

The 70's by a pretty massive margin

70s was our musical peak. There's been some great bands since, but as a decade it goes to 70s

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MTV allowed for a level of experimentation completely unlike any other era

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I'll wait while you back up this assertion

The bigger acts in the early days of MTV didn't make videos because why would they? They were giving away free product to an upstart channel. So, the people who made videos tended to be smaller acts who needed exposure. Now, you had your share of crappy performance videos, but plenty of early video artists used underemployed film directors and performance artists and all sort of weird crap made it on MTV in the first five years that would never, ever make it on later (it also allowed for a bunch of new stars to take over and it was an era of many one hit wonders)

Eventually, MTV's playlist became as boring and stultified as top 40 radio, but for a brief period, it was like the weirdest jukebox on earth. They also helped launch genres by exposing kids to music they likely would not have been exposed to with such programs as Yo! MTV Raps and 120 Minutes.

Video killed the radio star, or more accurately, Boomer dinosaur acts. A new generation of music found its way into the mainstream that never ever would have had not MTV been in its infancy and desperate for content.

ETA: I should also mention that it spawned the anti-video. The Mats' Bastards of Young which is just four minutes of a speaker playing the song on black and white film is a brilliant f you to the marketing department.

So, you list superstar bands from the 90's and leave out TOOL and Radiohead?

I was talking about experimental music.

Though even the video techniques had been pioneered by Richard Lester and Ken Russell (watch Tommy sometime, or better still watch Eric Idle's spoof of it on Rutland Weekend Television)

The '80s are notable for the revival (although it never really went away) of the ultimate unkillable dinosaur genre, heavy metal, as it adapted to the new environment as hair bands.

Plenty of "dinosaur" acts prospered in the '80s. Jefferson Starship actually got more popular. There was certainly no purge of older acts as happened when the Beatles hit in '64 (not that this is necessarily a good thing).

A few novelty things got airplay in the early days of MTV, but its playlist was always essentially a combination of AOR and disco music (whatever it's currently called). Historically the most interesting thing is how few black artists were played. CBS had to threaten a boycott to get Michael Jackson on there in the first place.

Herbie Hancock has a top ten hit on the back of its video. Post-punk made its first inroads into the US on MTV. The sound of pop music changed, as synth pop became more prevalent. Duran Duran didn't sound like anything that came before on top 40, nor really did Madonna (which is more about the mainstreaming of disco). The Talking Heads released some of their best work in the 80s (though they straddled the decade line, as did the Clash). Hip hop was essentially born in the 80s as was American hardcore.

MTV pretty much caused the Second British Invasion, helped along the careers of Madonna and Prince, and also allowed stuff like Art of Noise, Laurie Anderson, and Thomas Dolby on to mainstream radio.

Also, MTV broadcast the entirety of Live Aid. Sure, they played Phil Collins a lot, too. And tons of hair metal. But that was a small price to pay for 120 Minutes.

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The sound of pop music changed, as synth pop became more prevalent

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This was happening before MTV

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MTV pretty much caused

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No one is claiming that MTV was not (much too big) an influence, or that pop music didn't evolve.

You claimed in the '80s popular music was at its most experimental, and that simply is not true

MTV's most significant contribution was probably its revival of the girl teen idol (Blondie had come first, but it was the network that truly made it a genre)

Definitely the last great decade of country.