The 1950's had much jazz, plus artists like Johnnie Ray, so I'm quite fond of them. Lots was happening in the 60's that helped to shape things and make pop/rock etc important for the first time - whether you like the stuff or not, it's a very imprtant period. The 70's were quite naff in parts, but there was plenty of innovation too. The 80's kicked very mucho ass indeedy in all areas. The 90's were just bland on the whole. The 00's have been excellent so far. Cool.

i understand that, but is there not one of them that when you think of it it makes you shudder?

i voted 50ies, cause i listen least to music from the 50ies. Of course some decent music has been made in that decenium, but not as great as pE 90ies, which was the beginning point for bands like Bardo Pond, Charalambides or Windy & Carl.

the 80's mainstream sucked the worst though.

Not sure what the naughties are. Anyways every decade had plenty to offer if you knew where to look, but if we are specifically talking about what was mainstream and popular then yes, the late ninties was pretty atrocious. If we are talking about Nu-Metal, if we are talking terrible rap-rock hybrid bands, that was a pretty sad period in mainstream rock music. It was such a diffrence from the early ninties, when "alternative" bands were popular. The "Seattle scene" tends to get the overwhelming attention, perhaps undeservedly so. I look back on it as there was so much variety in rock music, many bands were just sort of doing thier own thing, and for a short time everything was getting grouped into "Alternative" even bands that had been around for years like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, and R.E.M.. None of these bands sound like one another, but they were all put under that "Alternative" tent. I think the variety of it was great, because for a short time all of those bands got attention, and sold well, but it lasted very briefly, and once Nu-Metal came along that got all the attention, we may look back on the early ninties with a bit of a cring, but it really wasn't that bad. The current state of mainstream radio is horrendeous, and there is not a decent music video channel right now. Even Mtv2 became just as bad as the first MTV, and Fuse is hardly the alternative to MTV. In fact the best music video channel is VHI Classics. There's something wrong with that.

I can't vote really, every decade has some really great music. If I had to vote for any decade it would be 1910's from what I know about.

Every decade has good music/bands:

50s: Bo Diddley, Link Wray, rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Dick Dale

60s: The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, the Velvet Underground, British invasion, psychedilia

70s: Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Krautrock, funk

80s: SY (of course), Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Dinosaur Jr., the Replacements, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Devo, New Order, the B-52s, Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Black Flag, Killing Joke, the Smiths, the Cure, hardcore, "indie" rock, Aphex Twin, U2, Prince

90s: SY (duh), Nirvana, the Melvins, Pavement, Prodigy, Front 242, Foo Fighters, Pantera, Tool, Helmet, Shudder To Think, Swervedriver, Soundgarden, Blur, Suede, Oasis, Radiohead, Catherine Wheel, Placebo, Fugazi, Jeff Buckley, PJ Harvey, Aphex Twin, the Crystal Method, L7, Hum, the Smashing Pumpkins, Ministry, Silverchair, Bush, Nine Inch Nails (to a point), Madchester

00s: SY (even to this day), the Strokes, the Vines, My Vitriol, Cave In, Minus The Bear, the Streets, Gorillaz, the White Stripes (to a point), Deftones, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Queens Of The Stone Age (Rated R only), Coldplay, BT, A Perfect Circle

Just like every decade has crap:

50s: doo wop

60s: most hippie folk, girl groups, surf pop (Jan and Dean, the Surfaris)

70s: disco, most prog rock

80s: Blondie, Billy Joel, Nick Lowe, Madonna, John Mellencamp, Sting on his own, most new wave, AOR, new jack swing rap, hair metal

90s: boy bands, Candlebox, Hootie and the Blowfish, Limp Bizkit, Britney Spears, Bryan Adams, Goo Goo Dolls, Blues Traveller

00s: Hmm...where to start? "New supergroups" like Velvet Revolver and Audioslave, Franz Ferdinand, Evanescence, screamo, most nu metal, metalcore, disco revivalists, Wolf Eyes (there, I said it)...I voted this decade.

Well I like jazz, psychadelic, "80's" (for lack of a better term), pop-rock, and I'm not too disappointed with current rock music. But I like very few bands from the 70s. Many of my least favorite bands are the big ones from that era - not to say they sucked, but I just don't like them. So I gotta go with that.

Good music:

50s - None

60s - None

70s - Less

80s - No Wave and Hardcore

90s - San Diego hardcore and Arab on Radar

00s - Endless supply of good tunes. Xiu Xiu, Wolf Eyes, Yellow Swans, Hair Police, etc.

Everything pre-80s is tied for worse.

i was tempted to say 70s because there was so much horrible music released, but the bad certainly outweighed the good in the 80s.

The Now-Ties. Get it, drunky?

EXACTLY! I knew you'd get it, diesel.

Yeah. I didn't make it. Johnny Boy means that.

Morons.

The 80's were pretty crap. The same can be said about the fashion trends of that period.

I would go with the late 90's when all the boy bands were around. Everything else is okay but that was horrible, and the shit like limp bizquit and all the trl stuff. God that was horrible. The 50's were pretty good though, I like listening to cheesy pop songs from then. Anyway, definitly the late 90's.

Eh? Most of those bands are gash.

I think the 80's and 90's were pretty rank to be fair. I think I voted for the 90's in the end. But there's obviously great and shite stuff in every decade so it's sort of pointless arguing about it....even if that's what the first sentence of this post was doing essentially.

Absolutely.

The 80's had Breakout by Swing Out Sister which is one of my all time least favourite songs ever.

are we only talking pop here?