Great Music: Which time period(s) is your favorite?

[mae]

This is just a little pre-voting vote. Curious to find out what everyone's favorite time period for music is out of the 14 that are involved in our Great Music Tournament. You can choose up to five different ones.

[divemaster]

Pretty easy vote for me. 1955 - 1959 and 1960 - 1964. I love the doo-wop oldies and the other genres represented during that time. As should be evidenced from the contests, I also really like the classic rock, southern rock, and motown funk and disco of the '70s and even some early '80s stuff. But the true oldies gets my vote as "favorite."

What I don't like about the '60s and '70s? The hippy-dippy psychodelic stuff. For example, I really like the Beatles early music. I Saw Her Standing There; I Want to Hold Your Hand -- stuff like that. Once they went all weird, I pretty much can't stand them. Strawberry Fields? Please, no. Just no.

As far as the '80s are concerned, I like the remnants and the carry-over of the classic rock sound. Even the softer stuff like Billy Joel and Elton John. But I don't care for where music branched from there very much. One branch went to heavy metal and hair bands. Nope. Another branch went toward the Michael Jackson / Madonna pop. Nope again.

[Iwritecode]

I love the hair bands and the metal bands from the 80's and 90's. It's what I grew up with. Although I listened to enough of the oldies from the 50's and 60's on the radio from road trips with my parents to appreciate them as well.

One time I took one of those quizzes on Facebook that was titled something like "how well do you know the oldies". It had stuff like who sung this song or finish the lyrics, etc... I surprised myself and aced the thing.

[mae]

I love different aspects of pretty much any era of music, from now and going back to the classical giants like Beethoven etc. Which is why I'm fascinated by a tournament like this, because we get to examine such a great swath of popular music, and you can't get to Adele and Lady Gaga without going through everyone that preceded. I like how music evolved, and I'm not one of those that cry constantly that "when I was young" music was better. Objectively, it was not. Being more familiar does not make it better. I grew up in the '80s and '90s, but some of my favorite artists are from eras before my time. I think music overall has consistently been good, always evolving, trying different things. Any music style we can trace back to some of its roots. Which is why this is so fun. Today's music to some may appear lackluster, but that may only be due to it being new and different from what we are used to. In recent years there have been some incredibly talented people coming out with all types of great music. But we shouldn't also forget what came before, the immortal artists of the '40s and '30, and even the '20s and beyond. These guys and gals laid the groundwork for what became jazz and rock 'n roll, the foundation of pretty much all of today's music.

[divemaster]

I admit I am a weird case. I was part of the MTV generation (my junior high and high school years were 1981 - 1986), but all I listened to at that time was county (well, and classical). 95% of my schoolmates were tuned into MTV and I remember when "Judas Priest" was the big thing. Me and my buds were looking for the next Hank Jr. or Oak Ridge Boys albums. If at that time you would have told me that I would end up liking bands such as Pink Floyd or The Rolling Stones, or god forbid Led Zeppelin, or even singers like Billy Joel or Elton John, I would have laughed at you.

I can honestly say I have never tuned into MTV in my life, even growing up in that era.

In college, I branched out to "oldies." I always had a spot for them, just didn't have much of a chance to listen to them very much. So now I was "country and oldies guy" (though truth be told I had WAY more classical music on tape and CD than the others combined).

In grad school, the lab manager hated country and I veto'd modern rock so we compromised on classic rock. Not "oldies" and not "modern." At first I didn't think much of it but over time I grew to like a lot of the sound. From then, having the classic rock station programmed in my car, well, now I'm a fan of (most) classic rock.

But it is atypical that none of this was the music of my youth or that "music was better when I was a kid." Hell, most of the songs I like were from before I was born, or at least before I was like 10 years old (and completely unfamiliar with anyway).

[Tommy]

MTV hardly even plays music videos any more. I haven't turned to MTV since the 90's probably.

[Tommy]

My favorite bands/musicians are Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, David Bowie, TOOL, Talking Heads, Brian Eno, The Knife, Marilyn Manson, Radiohead, Panda Bear, Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Black Dice, This Heat, Metallica, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Experimental Audio Research (E.A.R.), Sufjan Stevens, The Beatles. Led Zeppelin, DJ Shadow, Flying Lotus, Tricky, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Prince, Madonna, George Michael, Elton John...et al.

I'm all over the place!

[divemaster]

MTV hardly even plays music videos any more. I haven't turned to MTV since the 90's probably.

I honestly think the first non-country music video I ever saw was a couple of years ago when I discovered YouTube and started looking up various songs.

[Girlystevedave]

I'd have to say my favorite eras are 1960-1980 and then 1995-2000 (the latter mainly being because of my love for Green Day blooming when I was a teenager).
As far as the discussion about MTV- I was just discussing with my husband recently how our generation was the last to know of the awesomeness that was MTV. I remember being a kid and my mom would call us in from outside because Michael Jackson's Thriller was playing, I can remember almost every night as a teenager being spent in front of the tv watching Alternative Nation, or on Saturday Nights - Headbanger's Ball. MTV used to kick-ass and poor kids these days don't even realize that. The world these days is filled with instant gratification via the internet, and kids don't realize that, back then, you had to sit around and wait to see if your favorite music video was going to play. It was so exciting that way.

Also, I realize how much of an adult I am when I say things like "kids these days".

[Lurker]

I kinda tuned out when, to me, Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees and all that disco crap came along. I cannot begin how to describe how much I hated it then and I still hate it today. About how Shannon feels about Z Nation. And I never could stand Michael Jackson. Another reason to turn off mainstream radio.

And who would have thought that the MTV of then would be making scripted shows like the Chronicles of Shannara now...

[Heather19]

I'd have to say my favorite eras are 1960-1980 and then 1995-2000 (the latter mainly being because of my love for Green Day blooming when I was a teenager).
As far as the discussion about MTV- I was just discussing with my husband recently how our generation was the last to know of the awesomeness that was MTV. I remember being a kid and my mom would call us in from outside because Michael Jackson's Thriller was playing, I can remember almost every night as a teenager being spent in front of the tv watching Alternative Nation, or on Saturday Nights - Headbanger's Ball. MTV used to kick-ass and poor kids these days don't even realize that. The world these days is filled with instant gratification via the internet, and kids don't realize that, back then, you had to sit around and wait to see if your favorite music video was going to play. It was so exciting that way.

Also, I realize how much of an adult I am when I say things like "kids these days".

I agree, I miss the old MTV. Do you get Palladia? It's all music. They show some music videos, but it's more live performances from festivals and other all music shows. They've got some great stuff on there.

[mae]

YouTube has replaced MTV.

[Iwritecode]

Sadly, this is what kids think of as "old" MTV.

[Girlystevedave]

I'd have to say my favorite eras are 1960-1980 and then 1995-2000 (the latter mainly being because of my love for Green Day blooming when I was a teenager).
As far as the discussion about MTV- I was just discussing with my husband recently how our generation was the last to know of the awesomeness that was MTV. I remember being a kid and my mom would call us in from outside because Michael Jackson's Thriller was playing, I can remember almost every night as a teenager being spent in front of the tv watching Alternative Nation, or on Saturday Nights - Headbanger's Ball. MTV used to kick-ass and poor kids these days don't even realize that. The world these days is filled with instant gratification via the internet, and kids don't realize that, back then, you had to sit around and wait to see if your favorite music video was going to play. It was so exciting that way.

Also, I realize how much of an adult I am when I say things like "kids these days".

I agree, I miss the old MTV. Do you get Palladia? It's all music. They show some music videos, but it's more live performances from festivals and other all music shows. They've got some great stuff on there.

I'm not sure I do get Palladia, but I've heard of it. I'm gonna have to go home and search all my channels for it. What's really dumb is that I get MTV 2, but those bastards don't play music either!

YouTube has replaced MTV.

It really has. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome to be able to look up a certain video any time you like, but the anticipation of a new video premiering on MTV was so exciting.

Sadly, this is what kids think of as "old" MTV.

You are so right. It's a sad sad world we live in.

[Jon]

****News flash ****



I am a heavy metal fan.

Metal got a bit dull in the early 90's... the "glam metal" bands kinda pissed me off (Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Poison ect.) They left the roots of metal in the late 80's/early 90's. (To my point, see Ratt'sWay Coo Jr. )But have sooo much hope. I saw a metal resurgence...with a taste of hip hop/rap in the late 90s and early millennium. I refer to such bands as Drowning Pool, Disturbed, Godsmack...and with a lesser "Hip Hop/ Rap influence, Avenged Sevenfold.

I name only a few, but I am happy to see that TRUE metal has a future even when Iron Maiden retires...or dies in a plane crash because Eddie rushes the cockpit to rip out the David Lee Roth 8-track.

[ladysai]

Groovy...the 65-69 era is ahead in the polls. I certainly love lots of that era's music!
But, I also love music in each of the poll's eras.
I truly couldnt narrow it down in terms of the music itself.
So, I cast my vote for 75-79 for purely senitmental reasons.
Christmas of 1976 was when I was given my first radio.
I could listen to whatever I wanted to listen to.
(as long as it wasnt disco)
So, to me, that era was all about finding my way from one end of the dial to the other, which was a fantastic journey!
(I also learned to listen to disco and "the screaming nonsense" of Led Zeppelin at low low volume)
I'll always think of that funky clock radio with the same fondness as I think of my first set of car keys.

[Jon]

Clock radio?

So they had TIME when you were a kid?

[ladysai]

Hard to believe, right?