Which decade had the worst music?

[Chemical Ollie]

Joke in my local newspaper today: If you remember the 60´s, you weren't there!

[Provost Harrison]

I've never heard that one before!

[Cort Haus]

Molly, nice discography and quotes. I bet you've got the 'Are Friends Electric?' 7".

Too bad you didn't refer to this, though. (1969-70)

[Cort Haus]

The point is though, Molly, that surely a complete focus on the electronic soundscape (like Tangerine Dream) yields a very different product to the inclusion of electronic technology in a generally non-electronic mix for a solo, a texture, or a drum-beat,

Nice 'n Sleazy has a very whacky Moog solo, but it doesn't make The Stranglers an electronic band. A keyboard band yes, like Magazine, but not an electronic band.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Method
Everyone knows rock music acheived perfection in 1974.

Ah! The year The Stranglers formed.

[Frozzy]

Current prog rock bands like porcupine tree, or dream theater keep my interest in modern music.

Tree
Dream Theater

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


Ah! The year The Stranglers formed.

Hah, that isn't important- what is important is that that was the year where I started to have interest in music such as Sweet, Slade, Deep purple, Suzi etc.

The OP question doesn't really make any sense. We all have a preference for a period - typically the period when we where in the teens - and remeber those that are survivors.

[Addled Platypus]

I have only bought a few "new" albums since "00"

70-80's rocked

[-Jrabbit]

Poor Black Cat!
Sweet? ...sucked
Slade? ...hacks
Suzi Quatro? ...I'd hit it, but the music was mediocre.
The Purps, of course, were awesome.

1974 was a good year though. Great albums from Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, Triumverat, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Loggins & Messina, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin...

[Heresson]

Originally posted by Method
I have to say the 80s probably, although there's no shortage of stuff i like from from that decade (Rush, thrash and heavy metal). Metal just kept getting better from there though, so the 90s and the current decade are better for that reason. Current prog rock bands like porcupine tree, or dream theater keep my interest in modern music.

The best decade is an easy choice. Everyone knows rock music acheived perfection in 1974.

The Lamb?

[Method]

That and relayer, the power and the glory, red, starless and bible black, rush (although their best stuff was later...)

Originally posted by Frozzy
Tree

Probably the best rock band around these days.

[Straybow]

Porcupine Tree?? I guess I'll have to dig up some tracks and listen.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by MRT144
whatever molly, youre a hopeless case. im sorry that genres of electronic music like "house" and "techno" and "jungle" and "electro" dont mean anything to you.

youre just hopeless.

Dig yourself a hole, down down, deeper and down, as I play myself some Inner City.

John Reed on British dance music trends in Record Collector:

... House first made an impact on these shores around 1986. Its trademarks were an offbeat hi-hat sound... which recalled late 70s' disco.

Detroit techno:

In 1983 'Clear' by Juan Atkins & Cybotron ...merged 70s' disco & soul roots with Kraftwerk's European vibe.

and:

One of the first Detroit electronic classics appeared suddenly at the beginning of the eighties, made by the later techno pioneer Juan Atkins with Rick Davis (aka 3070) in a project called Cybotron. 'Clear' has a full electro aesthetic in a combination of break beats, futuristic synths, robotic vocoders and a sinister bassline. Certainly a hotspot on the electro tunes history, an all-time classic that represented at the same time a shining example for the future techno & electro artists.

Like wow. Which popular artists were using vocoders, futuristic synths and pumping basslines back in the mid-70s I wonder ?

Mmm, Donna Summer & Giorgio Moroder, Bowie, Eno and Kraftwerk, perhaps ?


Now let's see who the American artists/producers and d.j.s. were name-checking:

Kraftwerk was the inspiration for dozens of hip-hop artists back then. Kraftwerk was the beginning of it as far as I'm concerned.

Man Parish


From the ladies:

2 records put me over the top with hip hop- 'Planet Rock' and 'Numbers' from Kraftwerk. Every kid in the 'hood in New York and New Jersey was popping, blocking and breaking to that record.

Queen Latifah


But let's hear it from the Motor City d.j.s themselves:

At Universe, we were among the first promoters to champion Detroit techno and become friendly with the city's legendary d.j.s- Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Stacey Pullen.

It was mainly these d.j.s' citing of Kraftwerk as a primary influence behind their creation of the first Detroit tracks that inspired us to attempt to book the band.

Kraftwerk didn't disappoint anyone, particularly all of the Detroit legends who were squashed in the audience in front of the stage.

Paul Shurey


Derrick May says:

Detroit's techno "was akin to George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator."

"Kraftwerk was very Detroit too, because of the industry in Detroit and because of the mentality."

Now MRT144- are you sure you haven't been swimming amongst Pfiesteria piscicida recently ?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
The point is though, Molly, that surely a complete focus on the electronic soundscape (like Tangerine Dream) yields a very different product to the inclusion of electronic technology in a generally non-electronic mix for a solo, a texture, or a drum-beat,

Nice 'n Sleazy has a very whacky Moog solo, but it doesn't make The Stranglers an electronic band. A keyboard band yes, like Magazine, but not an electronic band.

But not every New Wave or post-punk group treated their instruments the way Eno used electronics in Roxy Music:

Manzanera recalls that in the days when he first played with the group, often his guitar-playing on stage was totally unrelated to the sound emanating from the PA. While playing solos under the spotlight he would become alarmed to discover that Eno was playfully operating an echo delay system. Phil's guitar would be fed through two Revoxes and the signal would be split on two separate recorders then played back at two different delays.

Johnny Rogan: 'Roxy Music'


In Roxy Music's performances and recordings even the clarinet and oboe would be fed through early synthesizers.

There's also a big difference between Magazine's use of keyboards and the Stranglers', especially on ambient tracks like 'The Thin Air' on 'Secondhand Daylight'.


In any case, it took several posts for MRT144 to adequately explain what he meant by 'electronic music' which turned out to be exactly what I thought he'd end up saying, ignoring the likes of Bernard Herrmann (what the f*ck is the theremin, if not an electronic instrument ?), Delia Darbyshire and the B.B.C. Radiophonic Workshop, Tangerine Dream, Can, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and so on.


I'll see your Hawkwind and raise you a Tangerine....

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by molly bloom
There's also a big difference between Magazine's use of keyboards and the Stranglers', especially on ambient tracks like 'The Thin Air' on 'Secondhand Daylight'.

Of course, if compared in isolation, there are plenty of differences : Magazine were the more electronic of the two, with more lead-oriented keyboards, while Greenfield mostly used a Hammond for more of a Gothic texture, but in the grand scheme of things, the two bands also have much in common for me. New Wave bands with driving, sit-up-and-listen bass, swirling Leslied keyboards and good all-round musicianship.

In my view, 'The Thin Air' wouldn't have been too out of place on 'Dark Side of the Moon', (except that it's definitely Adamson not Waters) and in a sense it's no more characteristic of the Magazine sound than 'Meninblack' on 'The Raven' is characteristic of The Stranglers sound.

'Shot by Both Sides' is more typical of Magazine for me, and when they cut that Dave Formula was not yet the keyboard player.