Me and my friend were talking about this today and we both agreed that it was the 90's but I think that it might just have been because thats when we were growing up. Some of the highlights we thought of were Grunge with bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Afghan Whigs, etc. Also Rap came into it's own with stuff like Illmatic and Wu-Tang among others. Britpop also had a lot to offer in the 90's with bands like Blur, Pulp, and Radiohead. I wanted to see what decade you guys thought and why.

it's definitely not 90s

1790 probably

1. 70s
2. 60s
3. 80s
4. 90s
5. 00s

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you were biased based on your childhood. Of course we're going to reminisce about whatever decade you may have had yr first kiss, first date, first sex, first summer of freedom, etc.

I think the 00's may be better than the 90's...otherwise, what you said.

I think the 60s were the best period for "music" but the 70s were the best period for rock'n'roll.

Yeah. Or I might even say yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah it does have a lot to do with that, though I still stand by the fact that it was a great time for music. After that I would say the 60's for obvious reasons, than 80's for stuff like the Pixies, Sonic Youth, Bad Brains, Husker Du, etc. Probably the 1940's and early next for the old school jazz and blues.

Bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Afghan Whigs, Blur, Pulp, and Radiohead are the reason the '90s were the worst decade.

The '80s were way better than anyone seems to remember. It wasn't all angular haircuts and disco synths.

The 70s were a fairly amazing time. It held both the best and worst music ever. The best of the Stones, Van Morrison, Springsteen, glam rock, pub rock, NYC punk and UK punk (as well as most of what would later be called, in chronological absurdity, "post punk") - all that sitting side by side with heydays of shit like Steve Miller and Yes and Meatloaf. Crazy days indeed.

The best of the '60s is the best of all-time, but I find so much of that decade hard to tolerate. Too much hippie idealism - it's not coincidence that the greatest artists of that time were also the most faithless (ie: Stones, Dylan, Zappa, Lennon, as well as the hard knocks realism of the R&B at the time).

'50s seem all the more amazing in retrospect. Elvis is one thing, but Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee would've been straight up arrested if they'd started out 30 years later. Add in the crazy shit going on in jazz and the acknowledgment that Ike Turner seemed normal back then - monster time.

I wish there was more available from the 40s and earlier. Some of the early jump blues stuff makes the 50s seem tame.

Still haven't decided on the '00s. There's been so much great music, lots of good bands, but nothing that really grasps to snag that brass ring. It's as if the '90s taught the '00s the brass ring didn't exist. Which it may not, but that's no reason not to try.

70's
80's
60's
00's
50's
90's

You've got 6 weeks to to make up your mind BR!

I was born in '67, have been listening to music since I was 9, "grew up" in the 80's (first date/kiss/drugs/sex--maybe not in that order), love many things from most genres-----but must say that despite all that, previous influences and all, this past decade of music is my favorite.

80's
00's
70's
60's

not sure which place i'd rank 50's and 40's but 90's is definitely the worst.

For some perspective, in 2001, I was thirteen.

My generation has no unified (or even fractured) culture or ideology. There is no romanticism. There are no anthems of my generation. We don't even think of ourselves as a generation. There is no political awareness, and definitely no philosophical awareness among the young masses. Everything is so fractured and compartmentalised it is pretty much joyless.

The majority of people my age, for fun and enlightenment: take drugs, go out and listen to electro music that they have no attachment to at a sterile club, dance, sweat, and then go home and take more drugs and fuck. It's all very base.

There is no attachment to any particular memory or music, because it's all so transient now. Music from 2005 sounds horribly dated already and it only happened a couple of years ago.

I first had sex to some shitty forgettable electro compilation on MDMA as a sixteen year old.

I try not to reminisce...

tough one for me - id place the 70's and 90's in a tie...so much great rock in both those decades. I might give the 90's a nod for sentimental reasons, but i honestly believe there was a lot of strong music in the 90s...and one of the few decades where a lot of the best music was in the mainstream.

60's were also strong and it is the decade that rock found more depth and mystique. I just find there are too many bands that only had only one or two good songs, besides the obvious exceptions like Dylan, Beatles, Moodies, etc

i think the 00's have been strong as well. And almost none of it is on the radio. The deeper you dig in this decade, the more great stuff you find.

80's were ok i guess. I realize it wasnt all synth pop, there was some great underground stuff - pixies, REM, dinosaur jr, etc - but just not enough of it for me to hail it a great decade for music.

That late 70s / early 80s period was pretty much the dawn of Australian music, so for me, it's the "Golden Age" that other people loosely bestow upon the "1965 - 1975" period for music elsewhere.

80s
60s
90s
70s
00s

60s

United we stand.

Definitely the 60s. Although probably for different reasons.

Definitely 60s for me. I'd probably follow it up in this order (without really thinking about it):

70s
90s
80s
00s
50s
40s, etc.

Keep in mind, the 20-30 somethings who first started actively pursuing music in the 90s got into it through mainstream alternative radio. They didn't connect to the hair metal or dance pop of their late 80s junior high existence, so to them, grunge was heaven sent.

Never mind that how we discover music has changed drastically, so we look at that last three decades with unequal handicapping.

Probably not as different as you would think, actually. There's just so much truly groundbreaking music in that 10 year period it's an easy choice. Then 70s are a close second though.

I've been listening to the 40s channel on Sirius a lot lately. I've had Louis Jordan's 'Jack You're Dead' in my head all week.

60s
70s
90s
80s

and only because my breadth of knowledge of them is minimal:
50s
40s

And, although I pick 60s as the "best" -- with so much ground broken and whatnot -- I think that most of my favorite stuff came out in the 70s. (Eno, Lowe/Brinsleys, Toots, Tom Zé's best, Television and the CBGBs crowd, etc...)

Just the triumvirate of Hank Williams (who could also be included in the 40's), Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly make the 50's really special. Add in Johnny Cash, The Killer, Elvis, Ike, Little Richard and the other early country, rock and roll (not to mention that their were hard blues "hits") and yeah, the 50's were a really special time.