MSU Red Cedar Message Board

60's for Otis Redding, Johnny Cash, (young) Rolling Stones, The Doors, Bob Dylan

70's for The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Neil Young

Nothing else can compare

Not really in the scope of the OP's post, but the correct answer to the question is the 1720s.

The Baroque era lasted over 150 years (1600-1760), and these 6 could be argued as the top 6 of that entire era. That is a dominating decade.

Bach
Vivaldi
Handel
Telemann
Rameau
Scarlatti

Pretty deep group that changed music for centuries.

This would make an excellent poll...

70's gave us the who, stones, Floyd, Bowie & other in their prime. Throw in iggy, Lou reed, early punk with the clash, ramones, pistols, the jam & others. The 80's gave us some great stuff (THE REPLACEMENTS) but the dreadful hair metal period too.

70's hands down we had Jim croce, Stevie Wonder,Zeppelin, Floyd, Marvin Gaye, The Who, David Bowie, The Eagles.. shall I continue

We are a really really really white community here.

holy shit, someone made a good post.

So it looks like most people think the 90s had the best music. I'm assuming that is because so many on this board are about 30-40 and lived through the 90s in high school and college. It was a solid decade but no way it was better than the lat 60s to early 70s.

The only thing in the 90s that comes close to the 60s and 70s is gangster rap. That's because there was a huge breakout of black artists sick of living in the hood and being ignored. They got in your face and made you think about their lifestyle. Kind of like the movements going on in the lat 60s and early 70s.

I'm too young to have enjoyed that era in music but the creativity and change from say '67 to '77 is greater than an other time period. Unless you think going from Britney Spears to Lady Gaga is similar. If so, there's no sense in even debating this stuff.

30s

This is easy
70's
90's
80's
00's

I am not saying that there was no good music from the 80's and 00's, but most of the popular stuff was/is garbage. The 70's (especially early) was the golden era of rock. The 90's with grunge, ska and rap held its own.

The best period of music is today - right now - the song an hour ago that grabs you and moves you, takes you over for the three minutes or so it last - a synthesis that is fresh and young and travels different and unique routes to aural centers of pleasure and moves your body in response. If you have lost your abiltiy to experience music in the same way you did in 1975 or 1995 it's you who have changed and not the music. As someone who went crazy over Little Richard 78 rpm records at age 7, who took a transistor radio to bed to listen to obscure R n B on WLAC-AM Nashville at age 12, was mesmerized by the Yardbirds performing at a roller rink at age 17, who odered Iggy Pop bootlegs from Fance while smoking a spleef and grooving to Bob Marlely and the Whalers at age 25 and yes, went disco-ing to Roy Ayers at age 30 - none of it is any more fun or satisfying than hearing a current song like Sister by The Black Keys - a tune I want to hear over and over again. In Pop music - the new is the best - the new has the decisive advantage over anything that preceded it. If you can't dig it well - "you can't criticize what you don't understand."

70's had the bulk of Led Zeps catalog released, the great Pink Floyd albums, Queen, Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers, The Who put out a few good 70's albums, all of the Ramones albums, Sex Pistols, Kraut Rock from Germany, all the soul and funk albums of James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Parliament/Funkadelic, Elvis was still producing some amazing live albums, there was mind blowing albums coming out of Kingston Jamaica in the 70's, you had the Bee Gees make a couple of sweet albums, Marc Bolan T.Rex, all the great Bowie albums happened in the 70's, Brian Eno, Bob Dylan's 70 albums, The Clash first album, great AC/DC albums with Bon Scott, The Stooges Fun House and Raw Power albums, the British New Wave of Heavy Metal (Judas Priest/Motorhead) got going and so on.

I think the 70's wins.

Edit: I made my answer based on the decades the OP asked about if he had included the 60's I'd be tempted to change my answer.