Best Ever Albums

Re: Best Decade

danmarzella — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 13:58:34 GMT

Author: danmarzella

Posted: 11/18/2016 18:58

90s, 70, 60s, 80s, 00s in that roder, done.

Re: Best Decade

TrekkiELO — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 20:51:28 GMT

Author: TrekkiELO

Posted: 10/31/2016 00:51

1980s
1970s
1990s
2000s
2010s
1960s
1950s

Music doesn't follow decades very well

Fischman — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 16:48:09 GMT

Author: Fischman

Posted: 10/28/2016 20:48

Trends in music occur any time and rarely line up with a clean break between decades. Most musical eras begin in the middle of one decade and end in the middle of another.

For rock, the greatest decade was '67 - '76
For Jazz, it was '56 - '65

Re: Best Decade

Daredevil42 — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 11:00:41 GMT

Author: Daredevil42

Posted: 09/20/2016 15:00

1970s>1980s>1960s>2000s>2010s>1950s>1990s

Re: Best Decade

RoundTheBend — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 19:27:25 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 09/19/2016 23:27

craola wrote:

the 2020s is my favorite decade for music cause it's totally uncharted territory. soon after, it'll be the 2030s and so on.

🤣 🤣 🤣

But part of me thinks you are serious... I like the pun though.

Re: Best Decade

Anonymous — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 15:09:51 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/18/2016 19:09

Best album's decade IMO would be 1965-1975 but if I have to choose I take 60s.
Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Miles, Coltrane, Dylan, Doors, Byrds, Velvet, Simon&Garfunkel, Soul classics, Blues rediscovery and white blues, the birth of power trio and hard rock music...
The huge advance in popular music of that decade has no match. Just listen to a record from 1961-2 and one from 1968-9. It's a world of difference in just a few years.

Re: Best Decade

Infinity183 — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 16:17:11 GMT

Author: Infinity183

Posted: 09/17/2016 20:17

The 1980s are definitely my favorite decade in music. Such an underrated period. Everybody seems to despise the decade for the overuse of synthesizers, gated drums, and generally commercial feel of music. For me personally, the identifiably 80s production style and catchy, hard-hitting melodic progressions are assets. Unlike the mainstream pop of this century, songs from the 80s still had original melodies, edge, sensible lyrics, or at least attitude. Of course, there was also the plethora of great new wave, post-punk, and early indie music, not to mention Kate Bush, my favorite musician of all time, was at her very best this decade. However, I love both the MTV-tailored pop and the more underground art pieces alike.

The 1970s are very close, as there was definitely much more structural and sonic experimentation that decade than there was in the 80s. However, they're ultimately spoiled by the onslaught of disco, a genre that is very hit-or-miss for me (its early 80s counterpart, post-disco, is far superior). While some groups, like the Bee Gees and Earth, Wind & Fire were consistently great, a lot of disco either dragged on forever or was just straight-up corny. It's not just a minor nitpick that I'm exaggerating because disco was absolutely inescapable during the second half of the 1970s.

The 1990s are also a great decade for music, just not quite as memorable as the 80s. The mid-90s, especially from about 1993 to 1997 in particular, were all-around fantastic, thanks to all the wonderful grunge, britpop, eurodance, hip hop, and miscellaneous. The early 90s, on the other hand, are a bit so-so, benefitting from masterpieces in the grunge, synthpop, hip hop, and alternative categories, but ranging from excellent to kind of cheap in other fields. The late 90s were the beginning of music's general deterioration into what it is now; although I do like 1997 for its still-musical pop and alternative masterpieces by bands like Radiohead and The Verve, things start to get blander after that.

The 1960s are the most overrated decade for music. Yes, it was the first time that bands were creatively branching out of the horrifyingly repetitive music industry of the mid-20th century, but to me personally, these burgeoning new ideas were not fully realized until the 1970s, at least for the most part. 1967 is a particularly phenomenal year in music, between things like The Velvet Underground and Nico, Sgt. Pepper's, Magical Mystery Tour, Are You Experienced, Songs of Leonard Cohen, The Doors' debut, Surrealistic Pillow, and superb pop songs like "Respect," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," and "San Francisco," but for the most part, 60s music was still a bit simplistic, even if the days of formulaic 8/12-bar blues were long gone.

The 2000s and 2010s, I'm not a huge fan of. There may be some good independent albums, but the vast bulk of music is shackled by the increasing corporatization of the industry and growing focus on raunchy shock value rather than, well, anything musical. The mid-2010s, in particular, are the worst time for music since the early 60s.

Re: Best Decade

badseed — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 04:39:25 GMT

Author: badseed

Posted: 09/17/2016 08:39

As I'm restructuring my chart I've come to realize the top 20 or so is actually very 21st century heavy. But then looking at my (heavily dated aside from 2010s) decade charts I realize that there's gonna be way more from the 60s and 70s in the long run. So the way I see it, although there's not nearly as much great music these last 15 years than 1965-75, the absolute best recent stuff is just as good if not better than any of the old stuff.

Re: Best Decade

craola — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 02:42:33 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 09/17/2016 06:42

the 2020s is my favorite decade for music cause it's totally uncharted territory. soon after, it'll be the 2030s and so on.

Re: Best Decade

Anti — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 22:27:18 GMT

Author: Anti

Posted: 09/17/2016 02:27

2000s > 2010s > 1990s > 1970s > 1960s > 1950s > 1980s

Re: Best Decade

Daydreamer — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 18:25:13 GMT

Author: Daydreamer

Posted: 09/16/2016 22:25

badseed wrote:

It's always been really close between the 60s and 70s to me, although joining this site has certainly helped me warm up to all the others. But still it comes down to those two decades.

While the 60s was relatively weak at the beginning it is notable for the gradual rise of rock music and then midway through the decade something happens and bam you've got hundreds of classic albums and thousands of great songs in a five year period. There was still a lot or great jazz and blues music in the first five years.

The early 70s were quite strong as well with the peak years of dozens of the greatest artists of all time. But with the breakups, deaths and declining quality in music by many famous acts things started going downhill around 1975. The later half of the decade is primarily noteworthy for punk rock and electronic music and those genres never flourished enough to carry the latter half of the 70s like the large and consistent combined output before it from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, David Bowie, Bob Marley, Yes, etc.

If I'm making a decade chart it looks more positively on the time period when things suddenly make a massive improvement than when everything starts to go downhill. So I gotta give it to the 60s.

60s>70s>90s>00s>50s>80s

I'll wait to pass judgment on the 2010s until it has passed but it's had a solid handful of albums that are as good as or better than just about anything ever made.

I feel absolutely the same, man. Still the 70's I think have the slight edge over the 60's.
However I have no idea how to rank the remaining decades.

Re: Best Decade

boyd94 — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 09:22:57 GMT

Author: boyd94

Posted: 09/16/2016 13:22

sethmadsen wrote:

I think I'd be equally interested in people's responses, and then what decade they turned 15 or 20 or 10 years old in.

A lot of people seem to display their age. I'm just lazy, you can deduce mine from my username 😉

Re: Best Decade

RoundTheBend — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 18:18:57 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 09/15/2016 22:18

I think I'd be equally interested in people's responses, and then what decade they turned 15 or 20 or 10 years old in.

Re: Best Decade

Lowkey — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 09:00:41 GMT

Author: Lowkey

Posted: 09/15/2016 13:00

2010s, my favorite genres have taken flight

and there's just more music coming out

Re: Best Decade

boyd94 — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 08:54:43 GMT

Author: boyd94

Posted: 09/15/2016 12:54

I'm not one to believe that modern music is particularly bereft of greatness but when I look at all the music I like the 1970s takes the cake. There's just such an abundance of greatness that hasn't been matched since.

Re: Best Decade

badseed — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 01:05:21 GMT

Author: badseed

Posted: 09/15/2016 05:05

It's always been really close between the 60s and 70s to me, although joining this site has certainly helped me warm up to all the others. But still it comes down to those two decades.

While the 60s was relatively weak at the beginning it is notable for the gradual rise of rock music and then midway through the decade something happens and bam you've got hundreds of classic albums and thousands of great songs in a five year period. There was still a lot or great jazz and blues music in the first five years.

The early 70s were quite strong as well with the peak years of dozens of the greatest artists of all time. But with the breakups, deaths and declining quality in music by many famous acts things started going downhill around 1975. The later half of the decade is primarily noteworthy for punk rock and electronic music and those genres never flourished enough to carry the latter half of the 70s like the large and consistent combined output before it from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, David Bowie, Bob Marley, Yes, etc.

If I'm making a decade chart it looks more positively on the time period when things suddenly make a massive improvement than when everything starts to go downhill. So I gotta give it to the 60s.

60s>70s>90s>00s>50s>80s

I'll wait to pass judgment on the 2010s until it has passed but it's had a solid handful of albums that are as good as or better than just about anything ever made.

Re: Best Decade

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:15:01 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/15/2016 04:15

Allabaster wrote:

you = me < us

Re: Best Decade

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:08:47 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/15/2016 04:08

you = me < us

Re: Best Decade

SOCRATES — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 21:25:38 GMT

Author: SOCRATES

Posted: 09/15/2016 01:25

2000s > 1990s > 1970s > 1960s > 1980s > 2010s > 1950s

Re: Best Decade

souplipton — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 21:08:48 GMT

Author: souplipton

Posted: 09/15/2016 01:08

70s>00s>90s>60s>10s>80s>50s

I think the 1970s is hands down the best decade.
The 2000s are great, but not quite great enough.
The best of the 1990s is better than that of the 2000s, but I feel that the 1990s didn't have as many quality albums.
Personally I think the 1960s are overrated. The early years are pretty empty until The Beatles come along, and they were obviously incredible, but a lot of the other masterpieces from the decade get by mostly on reputation and doing something first (first is not always best).
If the 2010s' best artists release another album in what's left of the decade, then it'll pass the 60s in my opinion.
The 1980s are better than they get credit for, but they don't get any credit at all.
The 1950s have some great jazz and the first generation of rock. I don't care much for the early rock, and the best jazz albums come near the end of the decade, which is too little too late for it to pass any other decade.