What in your opinion, is the "Golden Era" of popular music?

I really cannot argue with you.. because so much of what we embrace as "Classic Rock " today was the popular music of the late 60s and early 70s. Bands like the Beatles were Pop AND Rock. I do think that even into the early 80s though, Pop was interesting.. but after that I think the Bubblegum mentality and derivative nature firmly took hold of Pop and Top 40.

I remember when Prince was "pop".. and the guy is a freaking genius on guitar, and at songwritng.

Also I think that maybe we see a bit of a generational thing in what we would call the "Golden Years" as I think the biggest reason many older people have trouble liking newer Pop, is that we really don't get the culture and context of the generation it is penned by or for, you know?

That said... I think that there are few time periods like the mid to late 60s that really could compare. Really, at least in places liek the USA, never has there been a time of greater change and revolution.. the Vietnam War was in full tilt, the foundations for Watergate were being laid.. Segregation was coming to an end, and the whole Ultra-Conservative/McCarthy -istic mentality was being thrown off for the first time in the modern era. Really, People were throwing off the yokes of an old society and mental Ideology and were grasping for new and fresh ways to express themselves like never before.

Also, people in general had not become as mentally an physically lazy as our modern era. Yes today we have the World Wide Web to give us unprecedented access to information.. but people seem even more willing to just believe whatever they are told.... much like in ancient Rome.. as long as there is fresh sand for the Arenas to entertain us.. we overlook the fact that we are starving and the Empire is crumbling around our ears.

Regardless, the level of creative fervor of that time, I think it has yet to be matched.

BQ- Metal, in all it's glorious incarnations.

BQ2- Iron Maiden

BQ3- "The Book of Secrets" by Loreena McKennitt

BQ4- Changes too much to accurately say.

BQ5- the Leonore No. 3. of Beethoven's Fidelio... it has been my single favorite musical score since I was a small boy.

60s-80s and some okay stuff from the early 90s, but after that rock/metal went to crap.

well, here, we have the question of "What is a 'golden age'?". I for one, have no problem with calling the 70's the 'golden age', because I see it as being different from the "best". I see a golden age as kind of the 'classic origin' (I would draw a comparison to the Cambrian Explosion, but I realize that not everyone would understand what I was saying). So, yes, the 1970's were undeniably 'classic', but I don't think they were the "best"

BQ: post-metal

BQ2: Isis

BQ3: Pelican - 'The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw'

BQ4: Tough. I'll go with Pelican's "March into the Sea", for now.

BQ5: The crescendo starting about 21 minutes into Pig Destroyer's "Natasha".

Well, no, I didn't mean it was inferior. Many geologists will tell you that the Cambrian period was the most "interesting" period in geological history. It's just the little kids who think the Mesozoic was cooler a cooler era than the Paleozoic. I am of the opinion that music is 100% subjective, and so the fact that I might prefer the 00's is in no way saying that someone who likes any other period of music is "wrong".

I personally think that the 60s and 70s were genious decades. The 60s brought along The Beatles "White Album" and Led Zeppelin's "Led Zeppelin". The 70s brought along with it Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and "Wish You Were Here" and also "Led Zeppelin IV". Genious bands and genious albums. I love those decades. These days music is starting to sound the same. Lady Gaga has brought something kind of origional along, and i respect that, but with crap like Akon and whatever other suckish 'music' polluting the charts, we don't really get to hear any decent new music such as Airbourne.

BQ1: Favourite Genre: Hard Rock / Metal

BQ2: Favourite Band: KISS, Metallica, Led Zeppelin & Pink floyd. Too hard to decide.

BQ3: Favourite Album: Led Zeppelin IV or Dynasty by KISS.

BQ 4: Favourite Song: Modern Day Delilah - KISS / Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden / Of Wolf And Man - Metallica

BQ 5: Favourite moment in any song: I really like the riff of Hells Bells - AC/DC, but also i really love the lick from Black In Black. My all time favourite moment of a song has to be at 1:18 in The Longest Day - Iron Maiden; when the drums start being hit with both sticks.

hmm, Sugaree has a good point about the 50's radio

this is gonna be a hard one to answer..

60's for the psychedelia, 70's for the rock, 80's for the heavy metal, 90's for the hiphop.. and this is why, but im gonna try my hardest to narrow it down the best as i can for my true answer.

psychedelic rock had to be no doubt the best and biggest to ever happen, when everything was just beginning to develop. The 70's were very good to the pop culture because well, we were getting used to it, progressive rock was awesomeness in those times, comeing out with great albums like In the Wake of the Poseidon, Dark Side of the Moon, Fragile, Octopus ect.. 80's heavy got pretty popular i guess, i dont know my history very well like 90% of the metalheads out there so im not gonna open my mouth on it risking to get someone pissed off at my ignorance. 90's hiphop might be my answer for this, we all know that was the golden age for it... period. 89-95 was the time for when hiphop was at its finest, and the fact of Biggie's and Pac's death gave the genre even more recognition and respect, all the greatest hiphop albums of all time came out then as well, like All Eyez On Me, Ready To Die, Illmatic, but Illmatic especially, and of course The Low End Theory.

And i wouldnt really count the 00's a golden age for anything exactly, because by then every artist has a mix up of so many damnn genres these days, and it would be inferior to place a band/artist under one genre.

But to narrow it down, I would say the golden age for all of popular music would be 69'-75' for Prgressive Rock and 89'-95' for hiphop. I cant just give one answer so I would have to say those two time periods would be most benificial in my opinion.

BQ: i know you dont consider this an actual genre but I would say Psychedelic(Rock)

BQ2: Animal Collective of all time. and Deerhoof at the moment

BQ3: I dont quite have a favorite album, but Ive been listening to Deerhoof's Apple O a lot lately

BQ4: Same with for a favorite song, but Tikwid by Animal Collective, is my favorite song by my favorite band

BQ5: The freaky part of Astromony Domine by Pink Floyd

"Pop" music as a genre (a/k/a "MOR" or "easy listening" music): 1950s, when you had Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Teresa Brewer, Brenda Lee, Dean Martin, the Platters, and Frankie Laine -- among so many more.

"Pop" as in popular (what was on top 40 radio): 1969-1975, when there was a true mix of everything. Look at the wide variety of music that hit #1 in that period: R&B ("Tears of a Clown"), country ("Everything is Beautiful"), taditional MOR ("Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet"), rock and roll ("Honky Tonk Women"), the folk/"singer-songwriter" music ("Mrs. Robinson"), and great songs that have stood the test of time ("Let It Be"). Starting in '76, with the advent of disco, music became less about quality (because people weren't really "listening" to it as much as using it for dancing -- you could've sung the minutes to the meetings of Boring People International behind a disco beat and people would've bought it!) and the lower expectations branched out into all genres. The video era made things even worse because one didn't need to actually write a good song if the video would explain everything that was going on.

BA: Hillbilly (to separate from the term "country" lest anyone think I like that lifeless, lame pop trash they're trying to pass off as "country" today)

BA2: (Assuming you mean BAND and not PERFORMER/RECORDING ACT) Country: Louvin Brothers; rock: Talking Heads.

BA3: Tragic Songs of Life by the Louvin Brothers

BA4: "Dark as a Dungeon" by Merle Travis

BA5: Tammy Wynette's vocal explosion at the conclusion of "Stand By Your Man."

I think the 60's were but that's because most of my favorite music was made in the 60's.

BQ: Hard Rock

BQ2: Rage Against The Machine

BQ3: Cannibal Ox-The Cold Vein

BQ4: All Along The Watchtower-The Jimi Hendrix Experience

BQ5: Any part in "All Along The Watchtower"

1967 to 1984 is when it all came together and the music was truly something special. Almost all my favorite genres of music, prog rock, jazz fusion, heavy metal, were all invented and perfected during that era. The zeitgeist your referring to is all there, mostly.

BA: Prog Rock

BA2: Black Sabbath

BA3: Houses Of The Holy

BA4: Street Fighter by Triumph

BA5: The "Wurm" section of Starship Trooper

i don't think my opinion matters cause I'm 13 but i think it would be the early 80s cause that music is and will always be around and i love the hair bands

BQ: rock n roll

BQ2: Def Leppard

BQ3: Hysteria

BQ4: of course Hysteria

BQ5: Oh, I get hysterical, hysteria

Oh can you feel it, do you believe it?

It's such a magical mysteria

When you get that feelin', better start believin'

either the late 60's and 70s or the 90s.

i personally prefer the 90's but the "golden era" is probably late 60s/70s.