How do you rank the decades?

i'm going through this phase where i am listening to mostly pre-british invasion. so like 1926-1962 for the most part. but i am generally not a decade-ist. my decade rankings would mainly be from a production standpoint.

1960s- i love the sound of 60s production. very warm and organic. the best decade for drums, the best decade for horns- and those are the 2 hardest instrument sections to produce IMO.

1950s- a bit rougher than the 60s, but that has its pluses and minuses

1940s- painfully inconsistant, but much of it sounds quite a bit like the production of the 50s

2000s- its a modern age for production, and it truly runs the full range. from the cleanest most heavily produced pop hits to the deliberately dirty background buzz is the 5th member of the band sort of indie scene

1970s- early 70s are pretty good, production generally veers in the direction of being too clean and too produced by the end of the decade

1930s- production is in its infancy, but large improvements have been made since the 1920s. these records seem haunting and nostalgic compared to more modern techniques.

1990s- coming out of the dark ages of the 80s, but not quite to the enlightened age of the 2000s

1980s- basically in an effort to have the best production the 80s had one of the worst. there are still some bands using earlier production techniques and they make up for some of the poorer stuff, but just a bad decade, very clean, dont know how to produce horns anymore, dont know how to produce drums anymore, dont even know how to produce guitar anymore.

1920s- toward the end of the decade we get some great records quite a bit like the 1930s, but the early years can be quite intollerable from a production standpoint. generally a lot of 20s music just doesnt do well unless you can listen to it in the rare comfort of an isolated queit room.

1910s- by in large it was simply too rough to be listenable

i mean, there is such a wide variety of music being recorded in most of these decades i just dont see the point in attempting to rank them by any other means.

BQ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC7myZoVnlQ

There's great music in all decades, even the 80's (a favorite!)

40's great Swing and Big Bands of Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington and Glen Miller. Great Blues of Blind Boy Fuller and T-Bone Walker.

50's Jazz, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Red Garland, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson and Sonny Rollins. Rock and Roll: Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Gene Vincent.

60's The Beatles, Herman's Hermits, The Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, The Who. Basically the 'classic' Rock of the day.

70's The Hard Rock of Blue Oyster Cult, Free, Led Zeppelin. The Start of Metal: Black Sabbath, Budgie and Judas Priest. The onset of Fusion Jazz: Chick Corea and Return To Forever, George Duke, Joe Farrell and Kazumi Watanabe. Latin Jazz: Gilberto Gil and Airto Moreira. Others include Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart

80's was a total eye-opener and it moved me into whole new direction when I heard Black Sea by XTC in 1980. Some of my favorite genres then were Alternative Country, New Wave, Punk, Power Pop and Reggae (so many bands, so many bands!) and the start up of Techno/Industrial with Throbbing Gristle and Front 242

90's Basically a follow-up of the 80's Metal re-emerges from the ashes of Hair Metal and sparks my interest with Death Metal (Hypocrisy) Industrial/EBM is more prominent, Eco, Megadump, PIG, Steril and Velvet Acid Christ

00's Being on-line since the late-90's the genres I've gotten into has exploded! The internet has opened a whole new world of music I never knew existed. Great Scandinavian Metal, German NDH and Neofolk, etc etc etc.

BQ: I have a hard enough time deciding what my favorite genre is!

Random song: from Poland, Darzamat - The Burning Times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8xVEvQYNY0

10's. Ravel's "Bolero" and Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" are among my personal favorite tunes.

You must be a real music lover by the way.

70's. I am at heart a rockn'roller (however its spelled) and that seems like the majical era where the perfect wave of creative liberty broke.

40's. Woody Guthrie, Sonny Boy Williamson, AM radio.

90's. The decade which I think we all associate the most with our passions. 1990 I was 14. The next day I was 24 and 10 years were gone. I think the soundtrack was good enough tho, thanks to some epic acts from all parts of the music world. It's unfortunate that what was sold and what was good were 2 different things though.

1. 60s - A cultural revolution, music was used as a voice for a whole people.

Favorites from this decade: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Doors, The Beatles, Bob Dylan

2. 70s - Stick it to the man! Rock was outrageously good

Favorites: The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd

90s: After the sh*tty 80s, the 90s were a dare to be different decade... It reminds me of the 60s

Favorites: Nirvana

The other decades don't deserve to be mentioned.

I'm not into Jazz,but I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees how BLEAK the 80s were! I would ask you to reconsider the 90s. Don't you think that Dishwalla's 'Counting Blue Cars' or the Sunday's 'Here is Where the Story Ends' or Fatboy Slim's 'Weapon of Choice' were a little free-flotin' and out there? These tunes weren't happening in the 80s,that decade was TOO restrictive and synthetic. The 90s allowed a LOT of freedom,it wasn't just flannel shirts and fuzzy guitars. Consider.

1. 60's, psychedelic music took off, experimental music had some of it's greatest moments, folk music evolved into folk rock, soul music took off, progressive rock had many of it's groundbreaking albums.

2. 50's big band at it's best, groups like the Isley Brothers started the evolution of rock and roll into soul, James Brown got his name out there .

3. 00's soul and psychedelic had a rebirth in a sense, they call it neo-soul and neo-psyche but I'm indifferent, experimental music sort of got a new identity lately as well

4. 70's I could say "Black Moses" and that would be enough reason....along with What's Going On, prog was firing all cylinders, new wave and punk both came along, plenty of good

5. 80's I just dig synthpop...

6. 90's I honestly don't know much but I hear lot's of good groups

None are bad, just best to not as best I suppose

BA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL9K1IgzZg Dean Martin baby

1. 90s, 60s, 50s, 80s: I can't decide which I like the best because I love all of these. Here's why:

Grunge like Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam came from the 90s (and a portion of the late 80s, I guess) 80s had awesome pop music like Michael Jackson, George Michael, Madonna; ABBA. also had pimp rock such as Tears For Fears, U2 (both also hit the 90s), Umm, I think David Bowie was pumping out stuff then too, right?..Too much to list), 60s Rocking Beattles, Led Zepplin..I can't think. 50s and above had Elvis Presley. Ooh, When did Otis Redding play his jam? He was awesome!.....Errr There's too much.......

James

1) 70s love early 70s glam rock to punk rock,the most varied decade IMO.

80s) was a teen in the early 80s my love of music started then,from 2-tone ska,post punk and psychobilly concerts.Happy memories of warm summers and hanging about the bar everyone warns you not too go to.(still drink there,nothings changed except the name but we still call it by the old name.)

60s) great uk bands ruled the world,makes you proud what our little country did.

50s) Elvis all hail the king.

90s) not the greatest decade for me a lot of things ended.

2000's

Just because most of my favourite releases have probably been released within the last 10 years plus with the diversity of music these days what is there not to like.

1990's

Some excellent album were released in the 90's like Loveless, Liquid Swords, Entroducing, Spiderland and loads more, probably the best decade for hip hop.

I'm not a huge fan of the other decades, but Pixies did released all their good albums in the 80's along with a couple of other highlights like Daydream Nation, RTL, MOP and so on.

I love 70's, 80's and 90's music!!

I wish i was born in the 60's so i could have been around when that music was made :)

Atm i'm listening to Michael Jackson, Whittney, Mariah (in her early days) ect...