Which decade do you think was the most creative musically?

All music experts say it..

70s was the best time in music creativity..

Late 70s and 80s would be a better category. I remember hearing the Cure's first album, plus early works by Joy Division, Souixie, and Japan's later albums and thinking, "I've never heard anything like that before."

Talking Heads, Devo, Gary Numan, etc: They were making up new rules, musically and stylistically, which broke away from rock's blues roots for the first time. Everyone called it "New Wave" or "New Music" for a reason.

It all really depends on what type of creativity we're talking about. The 80's saw a lot of innovation with technology in music. Videos, synth, mixing, etc. Prince, The Police, U2, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Ozzy all came into their own in the 80's, along with the 2nd British wave of Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, etc. But the songs that were written in the 60's and 70's by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Heart, the Mamas and the Papas, etc laid the foundation for the next several decades.

And then we could argue it out about genre. Country, punk, metal, dance, hip hop all had different growth in different eras.

One thing holds true, though. Jpop stinks and is awful in every decade with very few exceptions.

@JeffLee, I think you're spot-on.

If you have access to decent radio,e.g BBC, there's a lot of creativity nowadays,too.

I voted the 80's only because we're given only one choice. I would still rate the 70's and probably even the 60's too as very high. For me, everything went downhill after the 80s and with rapping and hip-hop. Absolute lazy songwriting. Thumping and repetition doesn't count as music.

80s sucks !!..

creatively, the 80s. Didnt say "good"- just creative.

So many different types of music existed all at the same time and each could be popular at the same time.

Quite unlike now, where there is a formula for all of it.

Not OR but AND, the 70’s and the 80’s together were the era of most musical creativity.

You could rephrase the question to "Which decade were you a teenager in?" and you'd be guaranteed to get identical responses.

There's too much overlap between the decades to define them narrowly as the 60s, 70s and so on. Maybe a better way to categorise would be 65-74, 75-84 etc, because there was so much going on at the turn of each decade. I chose the 60s because of the foundation it laid such a solid foundation for the following decades, but would pick 65-74 if there was that option.

This depends on where. In Japan, the 80s, especially the early 80s, were great for pop music.

You could rephrase the question to "Which decade were you a teenager in?" and you'd be guaranteed to get identical responses.

Nope. I love some of the music from the 60s but I wasn't even born when the Beatles split. And there are a lot of young folks who are sick of a lot of today's music and look to sites like Youtube to listen to older music.

DEEP PURPLE 'Made in Japan' [track] Woman From Tokyo = musical creativity encapsulated.

60-70's that is when a musician had to have skills, not only create but perform, I mean sing. 80's and on all you needed was a synthesizer and a drum machine little vocals and you became a star.

Or to paraphrase the question.

Tell us how old you are without telling us how old you are ?

The 60,s most new music are retreads of the 60,s

We can all agree that 2010s were the worst so far

For me the 80s. No doubt

This was a tough choice. The 1960s through the late 1980s was the best era and no single decade stands out, but I choose the 1980s becuase it seemed include everything from the past, present and future and mashed up almost genre in existence.

It depends on one's generation really. I suspect that is how most people are voting on this.

Their youth. Good memories.

Music is very important for every walks of life.

Today is Robert Burns day, so shouldn't the 1780s and 1790s be included?

Two of the best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aoVJ4W2UOg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io-n-WIcj_M

Tough question because music is growing and evolving from that which preceded it so it's all interrelated. However, from the 1950s to the end of the 1970s was the best all round in terms of jazz, country & rock. The 80s were OK but it seemed to become more visual with MTV and whatnot, whereas before that was really more of a listening experience. My favorite decade for those listed here were the 1970s because it was kind of a zenith before the whole MTV took over. Also, music went down, IMO, due to all of the pirating and downloading with computers, because there was little incentive for artists to create great music if they weren't going to get paid what they were entitled to.

I can't pick just ONE decade. I listen to music from the 30s to the early 2000s. Most influential decades for me are the 60s through 2009 or so.

When was Psycho Killer by Talking Heads made?

That's your winner right there.

These vote results simply reflect the age brackets of those voting.

60s and early 70s without question. 80s was abysmal. Top twenty worst songs of all time and ten are from the 80s topped by We Built this CIty. Ouch. Case closed. Only innovation to come out of the 80s was rap.

Do agree that there is good music today but you need to look for it. Autotune has killed popular music.

Definitely the 60’s.

country with the likes of Patsy Cline and many more

Motown- nuff said

Of course R-n-R

Broadway-Hair, etc

leftovers from the 50’s - Sinatra, Vinton….

And much more, as said above, all laid the foundation.

And also said above, the 1980’s suck!! Mostly

The 1980s? Get real! The Beatles, Motown, and all The sixties by far but my favorite five-year period was from 1977-1982.

I was gonna say the '70s, but I think the 60's set the stage for that.

Definitely the music of today. Great artists like Kanye West and thug rappers are making the most creative music in the entire history of the world.

beatles, Hendrix, KISS, Rolling Stones all at their peak in the 70s it was by far the most creative and best decade for music. And no autotune!

You could rephrase the question to "Which decade were you a teenager in?" and you'd be guaranteed to get identical responses.

> Or to paraphrase the question.

Tell us how old you are without telling us how old you are?

spot on! but I already knew there were lots of old people using this site, just look at how some posters insist on talking about their previous diseases, conditions, surgeries, backaches etc. as if it was something to brag about lol old people talk

I was gonna say the '70s, but I think the 60's set the stage for that.

i would say 60 70s, but 70s disco just cant stop dancing to that when I was a kid

80s a close 3rd

~1770-~1910! All of the rest of Western 'music' is, in one way or another, derivative. Very little 'modern' will last longer than the generation aroused by it. This instance of 'civilization' peaked more than a century ago and it's only downhill from here...IMHO...'dark age' ahead...

70s started well and ended well. I don't think you can say both about the 60s or 80s. The 1960s didn't take off until Bob Dylan fed into the Beatles and inspired them into moving away from simple structures and "She Loves You" type lyrics. The other big 1960s trend is the unleashing of electrification, first with You Really Got Me, Louie Louie, etc. but ending with Hendrix and early heavy rock. The 1980s were only best for post-punk and synthpop. House and techno emerged in the 1980s but peaked in the 1990s. I think hiphop did too, with Wu Tan, ATCQ, Dre, Snoop, and early Dilla. A lot of 80s music is very overproduced. 90s soul, say Erykah Badu is all stripped back compared the gloss you get on 80s soul like Luther Vandross and Alexander O'Neal. There is also gloss overload on all those power ballads mentioned above as the worst songs of all time.

The 1970s gave us the greatest hard rock, the greatest funk, the greatest soul (Marvin, Stevie, Curtis, Al Green etc.), probably the best reggae, Afrobeat, some fantastic early electronica, jazz still pushing the boundaries with fusion (Headhunters, Weather Report etc.). Lots of great songwriting too, Neil Young, Carole King, Pink Floyd, Leonard Cohen, deeper themes and more introspection than the 1960s. As a decade, I think its the clear winner.

Tricky question but I think the sweet spot was late 70s to late 80s with a dash of early 90s. Special shoutout to the 60s for giving us Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Beatles, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Oh what I wouldn't give to have been able to attend the legendary Woodstock festival.

As a millennial, I am lucky to be able enjoy the the wonders of 70's "discothèque" with the help Dad's record collection.

Full of Funk/Soul/Pop, and.........Abba.

We do the King Kong Song,

You gotta sing along

Listen to the music and it couldn't go wrong!

Personally, I would go with 60's through to mid-70's. In the UK a number of bands came through around 63.

I saw Manfred Mann, Spencer Davis, The Animals etc at The Marquee (and of course The Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds at other venues). I was lucky to see Hendrix at a youth club in London before fame (and his last concert in the UK at the Isle of Wight). Pink Floyd Cream, Bowie, and then all the great bands and singers that followed on both sides of the Atlantic. The list of great artists could go on and on.....Joplin, Creedence, Steely Dan, The Doors, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher (and Taste), Zeppelin, The Who, ZZ Top, Deep Purple, The Allman Bros, Blue Oyster Cult, Blood Sweat & Tears, Yes, Jethro Tull, Lynyrd Skynyrd, CSNY, King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane...etc etc...and we shouldn't forget the Blues artists (from the 50's that inspired many of these) and later the Motown sound of the 60's). Then we have ska and roots reggae.

For music, this was a great time and I was fortunate not only to see most of these artists but also to have been involved in the music industry in the early 70's.

Let's just say Until late 90's was good enough for the Rock.

Some 80s/90s Japanese bands still producing really good hard rock music these days. TMGE ?

OK, I was kidding about Kanye West, but it was a good test. Say rap is awful and you get down voted. Say it's great and you get downvoted.

The 2000s.

Max Richter’s “MemoryHouse” and “Blue Notebooks”.

It’s invariably the decade when you were a teenager. That’s how it works.