What was the best decade for music?

[Asher]

Rappers are just obsessed with beat and cadence. If there's one thing I hate most in music it's one-trick-ponyism. In "rock" it's whiny bands like Sum 41 and formulaic bands like Nickelback. Worst are bands like Taking Back Sunday, which are both formulaic and whiny.

But virtually all rap is some guy incomprehensibly stringing poor rhymes together with virtually identical cadence with an overpowering beat in the background and a posse making random grunts and "yeahs" in the background.

[Kitschum]

The worst is the talky rap that talks about 9/11 and the government

[MRT144]

I had a TR-808. Sold it for almost triple its original retail a couple years after they were discontinued. Much sought-after by rappers for its idiosyncratic drum sound (pretty good toms, snare and hi-hat combined with incredibly cheesy crash cymbal) found on many early hip-hop discs. The TR-909 was the upgrade -- more expensive, with technically better samples. But it didn't have "that sound."

Everything but the cymbal was awesome on the 808. The 909 had a better kick for certain kinds of music though.

[chequita guevara]

I have to go with Drake's decade. Not only was there amazing rock n' roll, but the origins of rap and punk and glam are within that decade. It also includes the birth of bossa nova and some of the greatest jazz ever recorded.

[C0ckney]

That's a moronic analogy.

no it’s a pretty good analogy. another good one would be the difference between terrestrial and satellite television. the fact you dismiss it without saying why, only serves to demonstrate a lack of knowledge on your part.

This may be an even dumber statement. Most rap haters know better than to try to reduce the most diverse and influential musical genre of the last 20 years into a one-sentence description.

three things:

1) you can reduce most genres to a one sentence description if you try hard enough. for example i’ve heard punk described as ‘speeded up chuck berry chords with added anger.’ which is a slightly unkind but not totally unfair description. what is rap at its core? it’s poetry, over a beat (feel free to offer an alternative definition btw). that’s the innovation right there. whether it’s good or bad is a matter of taste. i actually think that poetry over a beat is a pretty cool idea, it’s just the execution that mostly sucks.

2) i invite you to back up your statement that rap is the most diverse genre (you might also want to explain what you mean by influential). i would argue that it’s not, and indeed not even close, even if we are only talking about the last 20 years. over this period rock is much more diverse. electronic music is more diverse still. my point here is not so much about a lack of variety in rap music (there is an enormous amount), but rather that there’s so much more variety in other types of music.

3) dumb, eh, says the hick boy who can’t read. rap hater? where have i ever said that i hate rap, oh that’s right, nowhere this is the second time you’ve put words in my mouth. i mean really, you can’t find stuff in my posts to disagree with without making **** up? it makes you come across like a know-nothing troll.

[MikeH]

Whichever decade one was between the ages of 14-20 in, or the 60s are the only acceptable answers.

[Drake Tungsten]

Whichever decade one was between the ages of 14-20 in, or the 60s are the only acceptable answers.

QFT

[MikeH]

I saw this thread, saw the title and was just coming to make that exact post. Imagine my joy when it's an old thread that I'd already won it.

[Drake Tungsten]

I still enjoy the Nineties far more than they deserve, exactly because I was between the ages 14 and 20 at the time.

[Heresson]

But virtually all rap is some guy incomprehensibly stringing poor rhymes together with virtually identical cadence with an overpowering beat in the background and a posse making random grunts and "yeahs" in the background.

I tend to agree.

Anyway, I've probably already posted, but for me, the greatest decade would be probably something like 1969-79 (82?). I don't care for the bands before 1969, I don't really know them and what I've heard was not really good.
1969-70, however, it's the start of Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, Black Sabbath, Van Der Graaf Generator, Queen, and so many others.

I have an obvious sentiment for the 90's' (and to a lesser extent, 80's) music as well, because I was growing up listening to it. 1996-7 was the peak of my interest in modern music, which grew dimmer after 1998 and ended completely when I moved to Warsaw in 2001.

I can't really say I found anything really good in the 2000's music. A couple good songs and albums, but no really bright star, not for me anyway.

[Drake Tungsten]

I don't care for the bands before 1969, I don't really know them and what I've heard was not really good.

Beatles, Stones, Who

1969-70, however, it's the start of Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, Black Sabbath, Van Der Graaf Generator, Queen, and so many others.

Prog

Why do people in ****hole Eastern European countries like prog so much?

[Boris Godunov]

I'm cheating and choosing a 20 year period, but I justify it because musical trends evolved much faster in the 20th century thanks to mass media.

1865-1885.

Major compositions included:

Bizet - Carmen
Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem, the 4 symphonies, the Violin Concerto, the Piano Concerto No. 2, a great deal of his chamber works
Bruch - Violin Concerto no. 1
Bruckner - Symphonies 4-7
Dvorak - Symphonies 1-7, Violin Concerto in A minor
Gounod - Romeo et Juliet
Grieg - Peer Gynt
Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition, A Night on Bald Mountain, Boris Godunov
Offenbach - The Tales of Hoffman
Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre, Samson et Dalila, Symphony No. 3
Smetana - Ma Vlast, The Bartered Bride
J. Strauss II - Die Fledermaus, The Blue Danube
Tchaikovsky - His first 4 symphonies, Swan Lake, Eugene Onegin, 1812 Overture
Verdi - Don Carlos, Aida
Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nuremburg, the completion of the Ring Cycle, Parsifal

[Heresson]

Beatles, Stones, Who

Beatles and RS had some good songs and were undoubtly very important to development of modern music, but for me, they were merely a step towards what came afterwards. The Who is probably the most overestimated band ever.

[Pekka]

Well, this is of course assuming that we all live in the same area (Earth), and have the same conception of time, or what year (or decade) it is now. I find it almost insulting that people assume these things to be trivial.

Secondly, define music. I don't like to play these language games. It is either precise or it is not. In this case I find it is not. So I assume by music you mean audio entertainment in the form of utterings and other noises that devices make. So does train produce music? If you listen to a train, it sounds like what you Earth people might call Jazz. Why is train not music? If you go to India, their trains sound much different from the ones we have, and ours sound different from others as well, meaning that trains make individual noises that might be interpreted as music. Analogue, digital, singing or rapping, these are not the questions to be asked first, they make no difference in the higher abstract level of meta-music. Singing and rapping, some people say singing takes skill, rapping does not, therefore rapping is not really music. But flying a 747 takes skill and thus I have to conclude, that pilots must be the greatest person-audio-devices. Or perhaps neuro-surgeons, their knives certainly makes a noise as well, a very danceable tunes I bet.

So, to give you an example, the best music is made by my ass, right now, and in the future, as well as in the past.

[wesley1842]

I don't know about 70's and 80's...... after I born.... i have seen from 1999 to 2009 is the best decade for music..........

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