What was the best year for albums?

[disgruntledmime]

So I'm not sure if this subject has been covered somewhere else on this site, but I decided to use the stats provided here to try to determine what the best years for albums were. I simply took the top ten albums from each year and averaged their overall ranks. Some of the early years did not have ten albums in the top five thousand four hundred, so I simply filled out those top tens with base numbers of five thousand four hundred in each open slot. I'm sure I could have made a mistake somewhere, so do the math yourself if you want, and I'm sure someone might want to do a deeper comparison, (maybe the top twenty or fifty from each year) but I think this gives a pretty good look at where the cream of each year's albums stack up against each other. Here's what I came up with.

Rank.....Year.............Overall average rank of that year's top ten albums
1...........1969.............................99.4
2...........1967............................101.8
3...........1991............................103.8
4...........1994............................111
5...........1971............................114.4
6...........1968............................120.7
7...........1970............................127.1
8...........1977............................134.3
9...........1975............................182.9
10.........1972............................186.4
11.........2002............................188.9
12.........2003............................194.3
13.........1973............................203.3
14.........2001............................207.6
15.........1984............................209.6
16.........2004............................210.3
17.........1996............................214.9
18.........1997............................222.6
19.........2000............................225.8
20.........1976............................237.4
21.........1979............................237.7
22.........1995............................244.5
23.........2007............................251.4
24.........1993............................264.6
25.........1998............................265.3
26.........1999............................271.2
27.........1989............................273.6
28.........2005............................277.3
29.........1992............................279.5
30.........2008............................280.9
31.........2006............................282.5
32.........1987............................285.6
33.........1978............................309.1
33.........1986............................309.1
35.........1988............................338
36.........1982............................346.6
37.........1980............................374.9
38.........1966............................378.2
39.........1974............................418
40.........1985............................420.8
41.........1983............................458.8
42.........1990............................475.5
43.........2009............................524
44.........1981............................737.4
45.........1964............................769.9
46.........1965............................786.3
47.........1963...........................1297
48.........1959...........................1334.9
49.........1957...........................2120.6
50.........1956...........................2165.8
51.........1961...........................2351.5
52.........1960...........................2378.4
53.........1958...........................3120.4
54.........1953...........................3451.2
55.........1962...........................3538.7
56.........1954...........................3934.9
57.........1955...........................3971.8
58.........1952...........................4615.7

I always felt that 1967 to 1971 was probably the best era of rock'n'roll and the numbers kind of verify that as the popular opinion. I also felt good about seeing 1991 and 1994 ranked so high, seeing as that's the music of my generation. I like the fact that the "aughties" had three of the top fifteen, (#11. 2002, #12. 2003 and #14. 2001) proving that it doesn't have to be old to be good. I think it also shows that most people thought the eighties sucked. (especially 1981. Wow!)

What do you think?

[telefunker]

charts like these are always inherently subjective and therefore contentious, although straight off the bat i thought of 67 and 91 as four of my favourite albums were released during those years (pet sounds, surrealistic pillow, nevermind and dangerous)

i shall therefore consider myself vindicated in my personal tastes and supreme wisdom!

kudos for doing the math too..
_________________
no fat chicks

[Mr. Shankly]

I'm having trouble understanding how 1969 usurps 1967 and 1970 over 1977? A bunch of hippies on here!

[Freddie55]

Your methodology was to take 10 albums from each year and then compare the scores.

Another possibility to consider:
1. Chart the top 300, 400 or 500 albums according to year. Most albums = best year (chart all 5400 if you want)
2. Chart the top 300, 400 or 500 album scores according to year. Highest total score = best year

If you could export the database to excel it would be easy. Otherwise, who has the time to re-enter all that data?

[badfaith]

Having a cursory glance at the chart, it seems to reflect major musical movements... the top two the golden hippie period, with 68 a bit of a slight slump between the two...maybe it took that year for bands to respond to the landmarks of 67 and raise their game?

91- the rise of Nirvana and grunge, 94- (I think) the revival of the British music scene, 70-72 had some great rock like who's next, and Led Zepp in earnest, and 77- punk.

I wonder though if those years are not more prominent on the strength of only a couple of massive albums with universal appeal, which account for a big portion of it's average score, but many others with a lower average... where other years may have had a more even spread- a larger amount of good albums, with higher positions overall but no real stonkers to push them higher?

[purple]

1979.

Fear of Music, Inflammable Material, London Calling, Entertainment!, Metal Box, Unknown Pleasures, 154, Drums and Wires, Rust Never Sleeps, Regatta de Blanc, Machine Gun Etiquette, the Raincoats, Setting Sons, B-52s, Specials, Can, Singles Going Steady, Quadrophenia, Off the Wall, The Wall. It was a big fucking year for music, especially punk and post-punk.

[Kiki]

[Freddie55]

I looked at my favourite 150 albums at RYM and found:

1970 - 16 albums
1971 - 14 albums
1969 - 12 albums

[videoheadcleaner]

Most Albums: 68 albums from 2006

Best Years (rated highly): 1986, 1997, 2004 (7 albums in top 150)

[1234567890]

As a strict 50s, 70s and 90s fan this is gonna hurt... 2003.