"My Era of Music Was The Best"

Couple possible reasons, really.

 

• It's what we're most familiar with, and what we've heard most often. Psychologically, we tend to like things more if we're familiar with them, regardless of quality (see "mere exposure effect")
• Music often reflects the era it was made in. You're more likely to sympathize with the music made in the era you grew up in, because the musicians were working off to prevalent moods of the time
• Like you said, life experiences. If we link an event to a stimulus, like a song, we're reminded of the event every time we hear it. This can be good or bad, but even if you associate a song with a breakup, when you're sad you'll want to hear that song

 

I only started to listen to music a few years ago, so I don't have any strong nostalgia or familiarity. However, I still seem biased towards music from the 90s and early 2000s, despite only hearing it recently. I expect this is because of the second point I brought up. The music just meshes well with my general mood, because maybe the artists have the same cultural mindset.

well darn scoots, you're just a filly. 

if it's based on age/decade, then I would enjoy the music of frank Sinatra and benny goodman, but I don't 

 

Very hard to argue against '70s rock!
 

 

Agree Spyro!

 

 

I turn 50 next month too. Received my first Zeppelin tape in 72 when I was 10. The next 10 years from 72-82 where Zeppelins days. Many can talk about how it was in the 1990s but for me our time was truly great. I had a couple of Sabbath songs when I was 10 too, but it wasn't until I heard Iron Man on headphones in 73-74 that life changed for me.

 

 

Our friends were all into the same music, there was only our music on the radio. Only our music at parties, only our music used at record stores. HA The times were more simple and not that there was not the fair amount of danger, but you always had your friends to cover your back.

 

 

People wonder why the music never dies? I really don't think you have as much music from the mid-sixties being played as the mid-seventies. Recording quality changed dramatically from Zeppelin 1 to Zeppelin 4! Lets not even get into how great the Song Remains The Same soundtrack is! We were really lucky to have lived it!

 

 

 

Then again it really could be just the emotional experiences and the great music that passed on our way threw our teens. Could someone from 1986 talk in such light about Robert Palmer? Wham?U2?   Heck NO!

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrGw_cOgwa8

 

 

Above we see a perfect example of how much music changed 10 years later. This mid-eighties reality could be for some a golden time as Zeppelin was for us, if it really is all perception and emotion, but still...........look at how things changed!

Edited by Redcarmoose - 1/29/12 at 6:03pm

I don't feel this way, my high school generation was in the 2000's, and I feel that our music was one of the worst, except for the few notable classics. Horribly recorded, lyrics that have no value, and artists who no more create music for creating music, more for the money. Every generation has exceptions, but I'm just disappointed in ours. 

Completely agree my generation is right now I guess and the music is terrible. I wish I was born ~12 years earlier, for so many of my favorite things were available at a time when I was too young to appreciate them.
 

 

I think you guys are looking at the past decade in the wrong light (unless this thread was to purposely talk about popular music). I don't think music has to be defined by what was popular. There was tons of great music that never got played on any radio station made in the 00s. I would hesitate to write off any decade.
 

 

This may sound drastic but good music (what I consider to be good at any rate) is hard to find now and has been for the past decade... But it's out there. You have to sift and search through a lot of crap to really find what you like, but after that it's all downhill.

 

I strongly believe I've had just as many influential musical experiences in my life compared to the time period referred to here in this thread... the 60s and 70s being the obvious time period. And I really do feel that way.

 

What happened to me was I had some people in my life growing up who knew what good music was. And then I actually went out and saw artists perform. That's the biggest misstep taken by this generation I feel, why good music isn't popular. If the kids would just GO and participate in seeing shows and talking to groups that are trying to put it out there, SUPPORT them, I think there's a shot it will become mainstream.

 

So I guess I should just say... GO SEE LIVE MUSIC! BRING OTHER PEOPLE WITH YOU! TELL OTHERS ABOUT IT! Otherwise it will never mean anything. Like artists say, they need people to view and judge what they put out to really know the art they're making is meaningful. That's an important relationship between artist and listener that has been lost.

well i'm 18 and enjoy a lot of music from the 90's/2000, but really like quite a bit of 70's and 80's music.
I think it has to do with the mood and feelings of the era/decade.

I'm seeing radiohead, the cure and the stone roses in july, now thats going to be great.

I agree that most new/modern music is a pile of poo, but some more undergroud rock/metalcore is very good. There are still some very good bands about, you just have to find them.

There's a distinction here to be drawn between what you listened to when you were young (where nostalgia is a feature) and what was current when you were young. When I was at university/college the music that I listened to was not what was then current chart fare but stuff from the 70s: Joni Mitchell, Elton John etc. I also listened to classical music and jazz.

 

Actually I don't sentimentalize that music all that much, and I don't listen to it disproportionately compared with other time periods in my collection. I think that I find it pretty natural to focus on the best music I've heard, whenever it was produced.

 

Speaking with as much objectivity as I can muster, though, I do think that the 1970s was a pretty special decade (or, more properly, the period between about 1965-75). Trying to map musical history on something as arbitrary as decades never works out perfectly.

My era of music is bull****. Its about selling as many copies of crap as possible. Its not about expressing your emotions or about making people think about the meaning of life, instead, its about forgetting all the important things in life and then buy shiny rims for your car.

Edited by Parall3l - 1/30/12 at 5:43am

Im in my early 30s, and i think the best era for music is 60s,70s, and 80s to a certain extent. Everything after that is recycled.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550304577138853167182714.html?

 

Garetz, could you please list some 199x/20xx music you've heard? Sounds like quite a bold statement to me.