Best decade for music?

The Eighties. Nothing beats it.

I love quite a few artists from that decade:

Miami Sound Machine
The Pet Shop Boys
Erasure
OMD
Duran Duran
Robert Tepper
Huey Lewis & the News
Furniture
Anvil
Midge Ure
The Thompson Twins
John Cafferty
The Jesus & Mary Chain
Giorgio Moroder
New Order
Belinda Carlisle
The Blow Monkeys
A Flock of Seagulls
Harold Faltermeyer
Howard Jones
The Smiths
The Dream Academy
A-Ha
Kenny Loggins
Samantha Fox
Talk Talk
Spandau Ballet
Oingo Boingo
Propaganda
Real Life
The Jets
Wham!
Europe
Loverboy
Jean Beauvoir
INXS
Prince
Starship
The Pointer Sisters

Even though I listen to video game music much more than actual music, I would say that the 90s had the best era of music for me. I love the grunge rock atmosphere of its music. 80s is great as well, love the synth heavy music.

Eighties then nineties.

I like quite a few of the names Maxil has listed but I would add Eurythmics, Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre and, sorry, Phil Collins from the eighties.

The current decade's pop-pickers seem mentally challenged to me what with what seems to pass for music nowadays. Unfortunatey all this shit seems to be sneaking onto Radio 2's playlists these days - at least those lists used by some of the DJ's on that station. It should all be ghetoised and restricted to Radio 1 so all the mentally challenged youth can listen to it there and not inflict all this pain on my ear drums.

But there has been some good stuff - Paloma Faith, Duffy (first album only), Adele, Emile Sande. And I like some of Hans Zimmer's earlier soundtracks - King Arthur, The Last Samurai, Nolan's Batman trilogy.

stengos wrote:Eighties then nineties.

I like quite a few of the names Maxil has listed but I would add Eurythmics, Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre and, sorry, Phil Collins from the eighties.

#BeKind's not going to be happy about that.

I would also add Martika, The Human League, Heaven 17, Hall & Oates, and probably Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five to the list.

Tanmann wrote:

stengos wrote:Eighties then nineties.

I like quite a few of the names Maxil has listed but I would add Eurythmics, Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre and, sorry, Phil Collins from the eighties.

#BeKind's not going to be happy about that.

I would also add Martika, The Human League, Heaven 17, Hall & Oates, and probably Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five to the list.

Martika's Toy Soldiers was excellent and the Human League's singles were too (I never heard their albums). Haven't the latter reformed recently? I read sthg on the internet. Somewhere.

I'd also add the Housemartins (eighties), Beautiful South (nineties and early noughties) and Paul Heaton and Jacqueline Abbot who have released 3 or 4 albums since around 2010.

It's always the 80s. Everything was best in the 80s.

iank wrote:Everything was best in the 80s.

This.

No it's the 70s!

Disco, prog, glam, soul, funk, punk, hard rock, classic singer-songwriters at their peak...

Also like the 50s for its energy. 90s was ok but derivative. 80s started brilliantly but Jacko meant it became too commercial after 1982.

Mott1 wrote:No it's the 70s!

Not this.

Mott1 wrote:No it's the 70s!

Disco, prog, glam, soul, funk, punk, hard rock, classic singer-songwriters at their peak...

Also like the 50s for its energy. 90s was ok but derivative. 80s started brilliantly but Jacko meant it became too commercial after 1982.

Agreed 100% with this.

I'm sure you are a very nice chap Maxil, but your tastes seem to be the complete antithesis of mine in almost every way.

I'll go with the '70s because at least most bands could actually play their instruments. Some of them to a skillful degree. Something which began to die out in the '80s.

Well I'm going to say objectively the 60s as it represents a musical renaissance the likes of which we probably won't see again for a long while. The Beatles, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, motown, Aretha Franklin. Each of these acts could have defined a decade on their own.

From a personal perspective however my favourite is a period of ten years from the late 00s to the late 10s.

The wave of female eccentric solo female singers kick started by Amy Winehouse in the late 00s, which continued for about 10 years or so is it for me.

I wouldn't say the 00s or the 10s on their own are the best, as it took the 00s a long while to get started, whilst at the same a lot of the best artists of the 10s started in the 00s, like Gaga, Paloma Faith and Adele.

Still that period of 10 years or so easily rivals the best musical trends from previous decades in quality. In fact I'd say it exceeds many famous musical trends. I never thought there was that much in Grunge, or Punk for instance apart from a few bands like Nirvana, The Sex Pistols and the Clash.

That wave of female singers is a bit overlooked IMO. I think its most likely because it was recent. In ten years time people will probably recognise it, but for now here are some of my faves.












and of course



Its a shame that wave came to an end. Obviously female singers in general are still popular, (and where before the 00s.) However this was a particular wave of eccentric, wild, crazy female performers, who were in some cases unbelievably unconventional, yet who managed to break through and enjoy mainstream success. Now we seem to have just reverted to default pop stars again.

Paloma Faith, Emeli Sande and Florence Welch are still doing great of course, Gaga meanwhile has arguably had more success for her acting, whilst a lot of the others have become niche like V V Brown, or faded away like Duffy and the Noisettes who haven't released an album since 2012.

In Lily Allen's case though she faded away because of her politics which is absolutely fair enough. She was a prized arsehole with her "I apologise for my country."  If there is ever a single moment where someone sunk their career, then surely that was it.

I never liked much 80s music, I usually prefer more interesting modern artists or highbrow shit from the centuries before.

There's probably more variety as time goes on, and insofar as the charts I guess maybe the 90s.

I really like movie soundtracks from the 90s. I'm also a big fan of all that new swig jack stuff that was around in the early part of the decade. The rock music was on point, too.

I bloody love techno: