The Worst Year In Music- 1974??

[richie]

Washington Post music critic Tim Page believes that without a doubt the worst year in music was 1974. He talks about some songs that I think were pretty good including some by Elton John, and Billy Joel's Piano Man.
Here is the link:

www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1671985
You can play the short audio from National Public Radio.
So while I don't agree that 1974 was a bad year in music, I was wondering what everyone thought about this:
What was the best year?
What was the worst year?
I know a lot of you don't go back that far, so just talk about your own experience of listening to music.
I don't know how I would answer the 2 questions myself, since each era has its own charm, and even some bad songs grow might have some pleasurable memories attached. But at least I'm opening up the discussion.

[RRMusicGuy]

This DOES NOT BELONG IN THIS FORUM!

[crash46]

Well, I've paid attention to 15 different years of music, and I believe that without a doubt the worst year in music was 2000. Pre-packaged kiddie pop reached its peak, Destiny's child broke through with their horrendous music, Britney Spears had her truly awful second album, substance-free rap metal and power-pop was starting to take over the rock charts, pop-stations began upping their top songs to triple-digit plays, and overall, many of the big hits just seemed to be really inane.

[DuckHead]

crash46 said:

Well, I've paid attention to 15 different years of music, and I believe that without a doubt the worst year in music was 2000. Pre-packaged kiddie pop reached its peak, Destiny's child broke through with their horrendous music, Britney Spears had her truly awful second album, substance-free rap metal and power-pop was starting to take over the rock charts, pop-stations began upping their top songs to triple-digit plays, and overall, many of the big hits just seemed to be really inane.

That's interesting. 2000 was one of my favorite years in music!

[Keith3000]

I've been following music since '93 and I basically listen to a variety of music including mainstream pop, R&B/hip hop. and alternative. To be honest, I'd say the worst year imo was 2003, taking all those formats into consideration. On the whole, 2003 sucked!

[crash46]

As for the bad side of 2003, I'll say that there were several awful songs involving Beyonce, Christina's Stripped album with 2 of the worst songs I've ever heard in "Fighter" and "Can't Hold Us Down", Staind and Fuel totally losing their edge, people falling for Avril Lavigne and her garbage, Hot AC bottoming out by having like 4 #1 songs all year long, and R and B and Rap music becoming so vapid of creativity, with very few exceptions, that it became almost unlistenable.

Other than that, however, I think of 2003 as a very good year for music...by far my favorite of the new century!

[Eyeball]

I've only been following music since 2001, and this year seems to be becoming the worst...

[billme]

I do not agree with music critic Tim Page about 1974. He didn't even talk about "The Streak". I do not agree with his OPINION.

After all, I did write a special about this year for a radio broadcast. It was a rather fun year of music. He did say 1975 was a great year.

So, what is was a bad year for music? Any year has good and bad music. What one poster said was bad in 2000 another will say that was great when teen pop was on top. Nobody wins.

I really hate it when people bash other people's art, and music is art.

[craig]

music also reflects people taste and style at the time. keep in mind someone had to but it or want to listen to it. hind is not always a good thing having been alive in 1974 i can say it was a fun and good year for music.

[Hervard]

The thing I remember most about 1974 was that it was the year that many songs fell out of the top ten (on the Billboard chart) from number one.

[Matt4319]

Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.

[j]

I thought 1999 was pretty bad. Ricky Martin, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Cher.

I've been listening since 1990, but only regularly since late 1994. That's a decade.

[halo19]

I definitely believe that it was the worst in 2003. Every year has some good music, definitely, but this one had a more sellout artists make it big than ever, the dominance of The Matrix's bad production, more crappy stale rock than ever before, and bland singer-songwriters, as well as some forgettable and obnoxious hip-hop (not all of it, just a lot of it). Also, it's an embarrasing record for alternative to have "Headstrong", a pop-metal song, as not only a year-end #1 but a longevity record on Alternative. I will never stop being disgusted by that. Not even good enough to redeem the fact that "Seven Nation Army" was two positions below.

Yes, 2000 had much terrible stuff, but anyone who avoided the mainstream knew that the good was spectacular. There was VAST, Harvey Danger, The White Stripes (although it took 'till the next year for the buzz that they have now), At The Drive-In, Cold, and many others that were made exceptional stuff. 2003's underground acts were hardly exciting.

And on the rock charts in 2000, there was good songs from Eve 6, Incubus, Orgy, the second A Perfect Circle single, blink-182's Enema of the State singles (much better than the follow-up album's singles), Deftones, and some others. The Cure even had a moderate hit. And all of those were bigger than many of the singles from Zwan, Placebo, Billy Talent, Thrice, etc.

And I started listening to music in the latter half of the 90s.

[Deleted]

2003

[jond7699]

I thought 1991 was a pretty weka year for music. Paula's "Spellbound" and Bryan's annoyingly overplayed "Everything I Do" all were released in that year. Plus Jesus Jones & EMF went top 5

[Castlevania]

2002 - Nickelback, Pink, Eminem, Nelly, Avril

BLAH AH

2003 is definitely the runner up

[pkwi]

I think the worst year for music was 1999. Pop ruled the airwaves and charts, and Rap had gone to hell by that point.

[mst3k]

In the 48+ years of the rock era, I'd have to say the worst was 2002... I very nearly stopped keeping a personal chart because I was so disenchanted by what pop radio was playing.

[billcs]

Songs from 1986, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2000 and 2002 are not represented on my All Time Favourites List. So I guess that says something.

[ExActLy99]

From Best to Worst since 1996
1) 1998
** 2004 (currently)
2) 1997
3) 1996
4) 2002
5) 1999
6) 2001
7) 2000
8) 2003

[Deleted]

I think music is starting off great in 2004 myself. Last year was so awful, there were times when I only really loved the Top 5 of my personal chart and the other 45 positions were filler with tracks falling down the chart from the upper positions. Songs that did not deserve Top 10 peaks were making it into the Top 10 simply because there was nothing better to hold it out. Now I can look at my Top 50 and I love every single one of the songs.

[halo19]

Like Rebirth, I am liking 2004 a lot right now. In fact, I think this is by far the best year in music of this decade (beating out 2001). Nothing makes me want to puke that much, and a bunch of great stuff is getting its due. Even Trapt have a tolerable single.

Also, I am doing just fine with my personal chart now, and I had a couple weeks where I was thinking of either shrinking my chart or just stopping altogether, during 2003. And it's also why I got so "indie"-happy, while charting some songs that I really didn't care a whole lot for.

[Gorminako]

I've looked at the songs year by year. Actually, I think 1974 was a low-point in music. The quality of music, at least pop music, declined dramatically each year from 1970 to 1974 after the glory years of the mid to late '60's, then stayed at a low ebb through the mid-'70's, then improved some towards the end of the decade. 1979 was a pretty good year. It remained pretty steady throughout the '80's, though 1983 was probably the best year (albums included Michael Jackson's Thriller, Journey's Frontiers, Def Leppard's Pyromania, U2's War, and Police's Synchronicity), and 1985 (boring) and maybe 1989 (advent of NKOTB, Milli Vanilli and Paula Abdul among others) were among the worst. I though 1991 was a new peak (memorable songs include "Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche, "Sade Pt. II" by Enigma, "Crazy" by Seal, and "The Unforgiven" by Metallica) then it declined again, peaking once again in 2000, and then suffered a sharp decline in 2001 and again in 2002, and has leveled out since.

Rock music hasn't always paralleled pop music, and the '70's was a good decade for rock. Grunge rock, which I liked, was strong in the early to mid-'90's. The late '90's through 2000 weren't good years for rock, but it rebounded in late 2001, and was especially strong, in my opinion, late 2002 and early 2003. But everybody will have a different opinion.

[pkwi]

I liked 2003, I thought that there were a lot of good releases, like Nelly Furtado's Folklore, The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Fever To Tell, Jay-Z's The Black Album, and Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

[Hervard]

Late 2001 was kind of a weak period. Songs were going to number one on my personal Top 30 chart that I didn't think deserved number one, but there was nothing better out. I guess it depends on what's going on in your life at the time. The 9/11 attacks sort of put a damper on things, but I think that things were getting slow in the first place - that just reinforced it.
Also, in the late summer of 2002, "Ordinary Day" by Vanessa Carlton hit number one on my personal chart and I don't think that deserved the top spot, but again, I couldn't think of anything else. And even now, if I were to go back and redo the charts from then, I wouldn't know what to choose. Actually, last year, songs began to get better, but then again, it has to do with what's going on in your life. Things got better for me last year and this year as well. Late 2001 and pretty much all of 2002 were sort of dreary for me, but at least it beat the hell out of 1999!

[specialist]

2000. Nsync, nu metal, and Britney Spears...just disgustingly bad "music".