<< Insert recollection of walking down Telegraph Ave in Berkeley in 1967 and the hearing the first notes of Purple Haze blaring from a bookstore and the known universe was broken open and something very very different seemed not only possible but inevitable... >>

Surely in part a product of youth, but although the 70's through the sheer volume of production was the "greatest" rock and roll decade, there was no time, even Elvis in the 50's, where music and broad culture seemed to align in seismic shifts... It was, I believe, more than just a generational memory, there was a breaking open, partially due to a cohesive media-driven public sphere that is all torn apart and tired now... and multi-national corporate hegemony co-opted and unplugged any semblance of what could pass for societal upheaval tied to music... really from about 1973 on the Masters of War and Commerce won the battle and now we all live in the tepid backwash of that victory/loss.

I voted 70s for number one, only for the chunk of 1977-1981.

pretty much.

Agreed

And while 70's beats 60's, 65-74 slays both 60's and 70's.

Yes. Applying a meaningless numerical cutoff is kind of dumb. Should reword so it is what specific 10 year increment is the best in music, period.

Wait, isn't a specific 10 year increment just as meaningless, if not more so, than the actual decades themselves?

Stop listening to the Dead.

Just trying to have a discussion, jagoff.

Actually no, I think it would be more interesting to ask "what ten year period produced the best music" than "what ten year period beginning and ending with a Zero produced the best music." Allowing that you're asking about some block of time, and that yes picking "10 years" is arbitrary, but you have to pick something. The right-on-the-decade date requirement does seem too limiting though, as per billy g's observation above.

Okay, then I pick '58, '67-'68, '72--'73, '77-'79, '83-'85, and '88-'90. That's my fave 10 years.

Regardless, the 80's are getting a bad rap in this thread.

Also, not a lot of hip hop fans I guess.

can't fuck with the 80's

That's cherry picking, dammit. You could just pick the 120 months that your favorite albums were released and do it one better, but the results would be even less interesting.

"What consecutive, contiguous 10 year span produced the best results?"

60s
90s
70s
80s
00s

This is a tough one for me...each decade has its pros and cons, not counting the 40s and 50s (I honestly don't have enough from those decades to comment)

80s were definitely the worst, I can't listen to most of the stuff from that era thanks to the over trebly guitars and gated reverb drums, god I hate all that shit...

the 90s were half and half, but most of the popular stuff I loved at the time (seattle, alt. rock) sounds incredibly dated. On the flipside there were great indie bands (Pavement, Sebadoh, JSBX, Superchunk, etc...)

yeah, i mean 86-89 beats most everything in the 90's.

1966 to 1975

I think this argument needs some charts...

I was having a discussion with my kids about this decade and how it would be perceived, and they have higher hopes for the next decade. They also noted that those higher hopes are because with the turning of the decade comes a reflection on the ten years past, and a desire for something to be shaken up. The same thing happened at the beginning of this decade with all of the mad at your dad rock from the end of the 90s leading into... i don't know... Outkast and The Strokes.

Same thing can be said for alt.rock railing against the mainstream crap of the late 80s.

New Wave stemmed out of the punk stew of the late 70s that was a reaction to disco and arena rock.

These were just loose ideas tossed out in class. They felt like maybe a case could be made that ends of decades resulted in subjugation of art for commercialism, and the beginnings of decades brought about a sea change in taste, for whatever reasons.

I think it's high time for a ragtime resurgence.

i love the 50s, but other than Hank Williams, Little Richard, and some doo wop stuff I like, I can't name many major artists pre-'54. Great decade, but it didn't get truly rolling until rock "broke out." I suppose I can't hold my ignorance against the decade. Though I agree it was too singles-based and lacked diversity.
Like: rockabilly, doo wop
Dislike: not much else, is there?

In the 60s we see the double-edged sword of the evolution of music. Everyone was buying a guitar and starting a band, and music in general was getting more creative. A lot more great stuff came out this decade, but the ratio between good music and bland shit took a major hit.
Like: Surf pop, Wall of Sound, Brit Invasion, Bubblegum, Atlantic R&B, folk revival
Dislike: "Classic" rock, psychedelic rock, drug rock, hippie jam shit

The 70s was too indulgent and like someone said earlier it was the bloated rock sta r bullshit that was the catalyst for a lot of great "underground" stuff.
Like: Kraut rock, punk
Dislike: Just about everything else.

I was an 80s child (and a 90s teen). The mainstream stuff was harmless and disposable. Other than hip-hop, I hard-pressed to think of much ground breaking stuff. Just rock bands pushing the boundaries a little bit, and sometimes it was just indie bands being a microcosm of the mainstream. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Like: Early hardcore (80-82), hip-hop, indie rock,
Dislike: Radio pop, heavy metal

Yay for the 90s. It was the decade where you had to try very hard to be in the underground. Rock/pop as a whole got more aggressive, and the sounds got bigger and better (without the conceit and pretension of the 70s). I really liked the diversity of the decade and that in both a musical and social context the genres blended together more. Shit kinda fell apart at the end though.
Like: Alt./indie/college radio rock, pop punk, techno, the squirrel nut zippers
Dislike: Hip-hop, post rock, nu-metal, disney pop, modern country. emo

The 00s were kinda like the 90s but the with added bonus of being able to easily avoid shit you don't like, and easily discover something new. Boundaries of music were pushed to the extreme with uneven results in the late 90s/early 00s. I think the White Stripes (and I guess the Strokes) "bringing rock back" is a pretty unheralded event. Definitely right up there with Nirvana and the Beatles as bands that spearheaded a major shift in the industry.
Like: Cherry picked songs and albums across every genre ever
Dislike: I'm too scared to look into the abyss.

Ya know, speaking of the 50s, people seem to forget you also had Sinatra and some excellent jazz.

The late '50s were monstrous for jazz.

But then, in the '60s, you had all the Blue Note stuff, free jazz, and the beginnings of fusion.

The '70s had some cool stuff, too, but as far as I can tell it was a considerable drop-off.

Still say that '70s > '60s > '50s with all of that taken into account.

Just about everything I listen to pre-1950 (which isn't much) is jazz, btw.