1991's music... Was it the best year for music we've ever seen?

[marylander1940]

 

 

[marylander1940]

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS91knuzoOA

[marylander1940]

 

 

[+ quoththeraven]

No.

[marylander1940]

No.

 

Which was the best year of Japanese music?

[+ quoththeraven]

Which was the best year of Japanese music?

 

I don't know. The only Japanese music I know is that of metal bands Dir en grey and Babymetal.

 

But as for Western pop, I would pick the late 60s or sometime in the 70s, when the Beatles, Stones, the Kinks, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Sly and the Family Stone, all of Motown, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, the Dead, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Steppenwolf, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, Traffic/Stevie Winwood, Donna Summer, Stevie Wonder, Tina & Ike Turner, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Talking Heads, the Cars, Blondie, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, and everyone else I'm forgetting was in their heyday.

 

You could argue for the heyday of REM, U2, Nirvana (though I don't particularly like grunge), NIN, etc., which might be late 80s/early 90s, or for Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson, none of whom I followed that closely. I'm probably most familiar with Madge's music out of the three of them, and I have mixed feelings about her cultural and artistic legacy. But to proclaim any one year the best ever is silly, in my opinion.

[+ Robster]

"Best" is too subjective, in my opinion. The mid-80's are my favorite, 1983-1985 in particular, and 1984 if I had to pick just one year.

 

Rob

[+ pdxleo]

If there were a Pandora station devoted to only 1967, I'd be one happy camper - the mix of psychedlia, bubble gum pop and offbeat import musicians seems to echo in my musical soul - this from a 53 year old with a very eclectic palate for tunes.

[marylander1940]

If there were a Pandora station devoted to only 1967, I'd be one happy camper - the mix of psychedlia, bubble gum pop and offbeat import musicians seems to echo in my musical soul - this from a 53 year old with a very eclectic palate for tunes.

 

Would you like to post some videos about 1967's music?

[+ WilliamM]

But as for Western pop, I would pick the late 60s or sometime in the 70s, when the Beatles, Stones, the Kinks, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Sly and the Family Stone, all of Motown, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, the Dead, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Steppenwolf, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, Traffic/Stevie Winwood, Donna Summer, Stevie Wonder, Tina & Ike Turner, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Talking Heads, the Cars, Blondie, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, and everyone else I'm forgetting was in their heyday.

 

I would add Bob Dylan, whom I saw perform twice in the 1970s, Bruce Springsteen whose career started in the mid-1970s, and Janis Joplin whom I saw at Forrest Hills, NY is the summer of 1970.

[+ quoththeraven]

I would add Bob Dylan, whom I saw perform twice in the 1970s, Bruce Springsteen whose career started in the mid-1970s, and Janis Joplin whom I saw at Forrest Hills, NY is the summer of 1970.

 

Cosign as to Dylan. I admire Springsteen, but his music never really set me on fire. I appreciated Janis, but found her voice too nasal to be pleasant to listen to.

[Bearofdistinction]

 

 

 

ABBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[longtime lurker]

1991 was probably the best year of the nineties.

 

A couple other years stand out:

 

1928: the peak of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith and other blues artists, Hollywood entering its "talkie" era with made-for-film song hits... although few sing Al Jolson's "Sonny Boy" today unless in humor

 

1932 was NOT a "great" year, but it boasted one of my all time favorite tunes: Cab Calloway's "Reefer Man"

 

1939 was arguably the best year of the Swing / Big Band Era. Although Glenn Miller is hardly representative of the era, his biggest hits were that year... along with much, much better stuff from Count Basie, Bennie Goodman, Lionel Hampton, etc.

 

1954 was the year Rhythm & Blues "morphed" into Rock & Roll and the "cool jazz" period started peaking (i.e. Miles Davis).

 

The sixties decade was great throughout, although one could argue that the years 1965 and 1968 probably produced the largest number of songs that we still hear constantly today, even on TV commercials. In just a three week period in November-December 1968, for example, you had the following albums rolling off the assembly line like Model T Fords: The Beatles White Album, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, The Supremes' Love Child, Elvis (Presley's upcoming TV special), The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, The Impressions' This Is My Country and the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet. Not to mention John Lennon and Yoko Ono were creating a ruckus by posing buck naked on their album released at this time.

 

Around 1973-74, music suddenly became a "niche" market: disco, funk, easy listening, muzak, country, hard rock, art rock, early punk. Each genre had a specified listening audience that wasn't listening to the others. Nobody quite replaced Frank Sinatra and The Beatles as the "go to" that everybody was listening to with limited fuss.

[+ bashful]

If there were a Pandora station devoted to only 1967, I'd be one happy camper

 

Let's fast forward 5 years

 

[+ Robster]

I appreciated Janis, but found her voice too nasal to be pleasant to listen to.

 

I don't like her voice either. Wayne once left one of her CDs on top of his car, and I joked that after it got run over, it was the best she'd ever sounded.

 

Rob

[+ quoththeraven]

ABBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

NOOO!!!

 

(Respect but not a fan of either group.)