While in Dallas a couple weeks ago, my brother and I got into a mini-discussion about which decade had the best music. His answer was the 60's and I agreed, but as we talked, we came to some kind of mutual grey area about the whether the 60's music is better than other decades. Growing up, I had always thought of the 70's as an awful era of music, but expanding my listening horizons has changed this view.

I don't remember exactly what was said, but I seem to recall us coming to the conclusions that each decade had some truly great music, but that each decade also had some god awful music, which seemed to reach a Mt. Everest peak in the 80's. I think Luke's exact words were, "I may not like the Carpenters, but it's a helluva lot better than Huey Lewis and the News."

Upon asking my sister "Reverendmother" which decade had the best music, she pulled out a wild-card answer by saying 1965-1975. Good answer, but I'd actually say 1975 through 1980 to include Pink Floyd and the late 70's Punk Rock music as well.

After thinking of all the great bands I listen to now, I realized that each decade has its fair share of great music. So with that, I thought I'd make a return to the list format to see which bands win out for each decade, as well as the final list. The fifties are left out, naturally.

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The Sixties

1. The Beatles
2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
3. Bob Dylan
4. The Doors
5. Simon and Garfunkel
6. The Rolling Stones
7. The Beach Boys
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival
9. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
10. The Who
11. The Kinks

There really isn't a weak link to the sixties chain, although I'm not the hugest The Kinks or The Who fan. The Beatles are an anomally on this list, whose name and name alone could make any decade rise to the top of the list. Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix are only separated by a fraction of a percent. Jimi and Dylan were just so damn good. The Beach Boys may surprise some, but listen to Pet Sounds and Smile and tell me otherwise.

The Seventies

1. Pink Floyd
2. Elton John
3. Led Zeppelin
4. Bob Marley
5. Queen
6. Stevie Wonder
7. The Clash
8. solo John Lennon
9. Marvin Gaye
10. Black Sabbath
11. The Bee Gees
12. The Eagles

The Pink Floyd albums Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall rank right up there with anything The Beatles put out, with The Wall being a better overall album than anything the Beatles put out. But so much of the rest of their career is pretty crappy, so they will never be able to topple "the Beatles." Elton John is a great songwriter, but his seventies stuff is unmatched. How can one argue with Marley, Zeppelin, and Queen. The rest of the bands are kick ass, but they're not as good as the bottom half of the 60's list.

The Eighties

1. Michael Jackson
2. Metallica
3. The Police
4. Public Enemy
5. U2
6. Guns and Roses
7. Prince
8. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
9. Run DMC
10. The Cars
11. Aerosmith

This was the hardest decade to gauge because I'm not that familiar with the great bands of this decade. I had to put MJ at number one because he IS 80's music in all its shapes and forms. Metallica was a better overall band than Zeppelin. Guns and Roses kicked much ass, but a lot of their later stuff is junk. I love The Police and think that they're probably the best technical musicians on any of the decade lists. What I've heard of U2 is pretty great. In many ways, Prince has held up better musically than Michael Jackson.


The Nineties

1. Beck
2. Elliott Smith
3. The Beastie Boys
4. Rage Against the Machine
5. Smashing Pumpkins
6. Aimee Mann
7. Nirvana
8. Portishead
9. Radiohead
10. Bjork
11. Weezer
12. Cake

I love the music of the 90's and think that it was a very underrated decade music wise. I of course had to put Beck on top, since he really helped usher in the new era of music with different genres bended into one. Elliott Smith is of course just a genius songwriter who will someday be appreciated more than he is today. The Beastie Boys were technically an 80's band, but their best string of albums came in the 90's...even Paul's Boutique was late enough in the 80's for me to consider it a 90's album. The Smashing Pumpkins were a better band than Nirvana...there, I said it. I credit a lot of the modern progressive movement of today as being helped along with the emergence of Rage Against the Machine. The list gets thin with the last couple of spots, which is similar to the 60's list. Weezer helped usher in a new genre of geek pop.

The Aughts

1. Mos Def
2. Talib Kweli
3. The White Stripes
4. Coldplay
5. The Gorillaz
6. Outkast
7. System of a Down

This one was hard because the decade is still progressing. Mos Def and Talib Kweli are true hip hop artists. The White Stripes have successfully filled in the niche left open by Nirvana's departure. Coldplay is chock full of great songs, and as the decade progresses, I think they'll move up the list. Outkast are the hit makers, while System of a Down has successfully re-invigorated and remade the metal genre into something cool again. The Gorillaz have taken cross genre music into another sphere. We'll see how this decade progresses.

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The Final Outcome

1. The 60's - can't beat a list with The Beatles, Stones, Doors, Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, CCR, and The Beach Boys.

2. The 90's - It's my sentimental favorite since it's the decade when I seriously started to listen to music. But much of my music listening in this decade was of the Beatles, so that sign points to the 90's as ranking second.

3. The 70's - a close third. Coming after the 60's, the music of this decade can be a real downer sometimes. This is the decade when music got large, thanks to acts like Queen and Pink Floyd. I don't enjoy the soundscape as much during the 70's as with other decades.

4. The 80's - definitely last, but mainly because I'm not that familiar with most of the great music of that decade.

5. The Aughts - it's only 2005 for crying out loud. I'll assess the list again in 2010. ;-)

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If you were to do the same thing, I'm 100% positive that they would greatly differ from my lists. I'm sure that there are bands that you love that got left off my list for one reason or another. I guess that's part of the fun of these things.

matt out