hey Steve, Thriller is a single album, right? LOl
It is hard to answer because some of my choices started at an age and peaked at another.

70´s:
Sweet,Yes,Rick wakeman,Doobie Brothers, Nazareth
80´s:
Michael jackson, Toto, Tears for Fears, U2, Rush
90´s:
Extreme, Satriani, Lisa Stansfield, Soundgarden, Bon Jovi

2000´s:
I have just listen to shit up to now...
maybe Silverchair, audioslave....

There are singers and groups that were very important to help build POP/Rock industry. It is difficult to select just a few.
I would also include some brazilian artists like Djavan, Ivan Lins, Lulu Santos, Milton Nascimento, Tom Jobim.

70´s DIsco ( Donna Summer, etc), Kraftwerk ( for the electronic Music), Pop/Rock ( Simple Minds, Hall & Oates, Wax), some soundtracks that sold millions (Flahdance, Top Gun, Titanic), etc.

Hey, I am out of the original topic!
Sorry

Why's everyone got such a hard-on for U2? They're so self-important and SO overplayed. They're definitely not the pre-eminent rock band, IMHO. Radio programming directors seem to differ with my opinion on that.

Let's see -

60's-70's

Beatles
Hendrix
Zep
Stones (their later stuff is lame, though)
Uhh..can't nail it down to any more, got all sorts of tunes running through my head and I like all of them....

80's
The 80's just sucked.
I grew up in the '80s, so I'm jaded.
Stevie Ray
Elvis Costello
Tom Petty (boy does that hurt..overplayed - but there's not a whole lot of bright spots in the synth pop/Duran Duran era...)

I need to move on now, before i get angry about the '80s.

90s-today

Norah Jones is very fresh
Audioslave - sorta - Chris Cornell is a little overreaching, and their GTR riffs are a little stale, but damn if it doesn't hold together

Puddle of Mud
Nirvana (PJ are kinda poseurs)

Dan Roth
Otitis Media

Straight outta my head, no long thinking about it-

70s

Clash (70s or 80s)
Paul Simon (60s, 70s, or 80s)
David Bowie (60s or 70s)
Led Zeppelin (not listening too much these days, but you gotta respect)
The Meters (60s or 70s)

80s

The Police (70s or 80s)
Squeeze(70s or 80s)
Talking Heads (70s or 80s)
U2 (up to and including "Joshua Tree", then bad)
Peter Gabriel (prefer his 80s stuff to all else)

90s

PJ Harvey (1st two albums)
Beastie Boys (80s or 90s)
Pavement
Jane's Addiction (80s or 90s)
Beck

I find it hard to organize by decades because many of these bands could fit in two. Tom Waits gets special mention for doing solid work for three decades. So what's the point of this, Steve? I don't feel like an oldster.
Frankly, the reason people stop liking new music is because they stop listening to new music. i agree that commercial outlets suck, but they always have. FM is now crappy AM. The internet is probably the new FM (hee hee, I would love to see someone start a wild-ass, eclectic AM station!).
KEXP out of Seattle plays interesting stuff, so does NPR.
We can't say all music sucks these days, because we are the ones making some of it! Doc

I'm not going to list by era because I don't feel like thinking that hard. Instead I'm going to write in order (going way back) the bands and individuals that I thought were the best. I'm going to leave out the obvious choices because... well I don't know why... cause they're boring I guess.

Doc Boggs
Louis Armstrong (ok, I lied obvious)
Charlie Christian
Django
Joe Venuti
Broozy
Miles Davis
Link Wray
The Shadows
Byrds
Kinks(British Invasion bands in general)
Yardbirds
almost everything Atlantic/Stax
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Electric Flag
The Original Quicksilver (with Cippolina)
The Band
Flying Burrito Brothers
The Pixies
The Pogues
BR549
Sonic Youth
Diggable Planets
Wilco
Radio Head
Beck
Nickle Creek
Sea and Cake
Stereolab
Lightening Bolt

Why do I feel guilty admitting I like some of Coldplay's music?

John,
I felt the same guilt about liking Coldplay until I bought the Coldplay album last week. Now I feel stupid because it is not a very good album. I count only two decent tracks on the album, one of which is the song I heard on the radio. The album lacks emotion and complexity. It all sounds the same. Almost bought Queens of the Stone Age and now I think I went wrong. Coldplay = unimaginative knock-off of Radiohead. Doc

Man, how could i have forgotten Duran Duran, The Police?
:)

Can't resist this topic, even at the same time that i can't for the life of me figure out why any opinions vented here could possibly matter...

70's "The Golden Age of Everything Goes"

Zappa
Joni Mitchell
Genesis
Sly and the Family Stone
Queen

(and too many others, to name. Oh alright: War, Zeppelin, Bowie, Tom Waits, 10CC and Bob Marley)

80's "It's All About the Attitude, and the Cash"

Elvis Costello
Police
Clash
U2
Gabriel

90's "It's Just About the Cash"

Beck
Bjork
Prince
Nirvana
Beastie Boys

00's "It's All About the Teenage Girls"

Super Furry Animals
Radiohead
Daft Punk
U2

Can't think of any more... I don't think the number of great bands around ever really changes. Just whether or not the record companies are signing and promoting them anymore. Most of the great music of the last ten years is actually kind of hard to find. And it almost certainly in the Top 40 -- contrast that with the 60's, 70's, and 80's...

I'm new here but couldn't resist this:

'70's:
Focus
Gentle Giant
The Strawbs
Caravan
Cat Stevens
Jethro Tull

80's:
Dire Straits (from '79)
?

90's:

???

:)

70
Pink Floyd
King Crimson
80
Talk Talk
Police
90
Orbital
Massive Attack
00
Boards of Canada

:c:

Originally posted by Doc@BeefyTreats.com:
So what's the point of this, Steve? I don't feel like an oldster.
Frankly, the reason people stop liking new music is because they stop listening to new music.
We can't say all music sucks these days, because we are the ones making some of it! Doc

Thats the point exactly! I wanted to give people a chance to remind each other that music does not suck anymore than it ever did.

Should I start a 5 worst bands thread? I was afraid it would upset too many people (because deep down inside we all seem to like pop).

Oh yeah! The Meters! GREAT stuff. See, I've got all this stuff lying around, but I never know what the hell to pick! Heh.

There's a pop tune from the late '60's early 70's called Spooky that has a Meters riff in it.
I was shocked when I heard it (the Meters tune) and realized that same riff was lifted wholesale from them. Of course, Jimmy Page did the same thing.

It's really hard to pin things down to "best bands of any era" There are so many good songs, even if the band wasn't good, yaknow?

It's interesting to see that we all say "pop these days is crap" and then go on to name pop bands of the past as our "holy grail". I'm guilty of it too, but there's just SO much good stuff out there old and new.

Anyone heard OK Go? I bought the album because it has a picture of a Volvo 244 on the cover (car nut in my off time :p ) But it's actually a really good album. Mixed by one of the Lord-Alge's so it's got that "sound". I actually like the sound, I think it's got some excitement to it, no matter how compressed to hell it is.

And it'd be even harder to name bands that I think are the worst. There's lots of bad stuff out there too!

Dan Roth
Otitis Media

Otitis Media! :D What a great name! Doc

Not everyone "gets it". It's routinely called "Otis Media" which makes me bristle. After the Toad show on Saturday, I should rename it Tinnitus media...Oi. Matchless Lightning 15 pointing RIGHT AT MY EAR...

Getting a referral to an audiologist anyway - the ringing has subsided a bit, but now I'm gun shy. Same thing happened when I saw BB King and stood next to the PA array, but that was the other ear...

Hey Dan,
Check your phone messages!!!

Steve

60's
Beatles
Stones
Hendrix
Zeplin
Cream

70's
Allman Bros
ZZ Top
Jethro Tull
Deep Purple
Jeff Beck

80's
Fabulous Thunderbirds
Motorhead
Van Halen
AC/DC
Ozzy Osbourne

90's
Green Day
Blink 182
311
Counting Crows
Jimmy Buffett

2000's

Stones
Black Sabbath
Paul McCartney
Ringo Starr's All Star Band
Steve Vai

70's,
Led Zepplin
Paul Simon
Joni Mitchell
Supertramp
Fleetwood Mac

80's
Dead Can Dance
Public Enemy
Clash
The Blue Nile
Prince

90's
Radiohead
Massive Attack
Stereo Lab
Wu Tang/Company Flo (dead tie)
Bjork/Sugarcubes

2000's
Soundtrack to Lagaan rocks, well in that Bollywood way.
Celia Cruz release a mighty fine record in 2000 as well, but you could put her in all these catagories and she would still kick some serious ass. I omitted her and Tito as I was a rebelious little latino growing up, can't listen to the parents old music, which was a mix of that and Mannalow, Humperdink, and the captain and toni peppered with the right amount of BJ Thomas.

By the way this got harder as in the 90's and dam right brutal in 2000, just one new artist and that is a film soundtrack. As much as I get a kick out of Avril and all.... oh snap! Sanremo is on, sorry Italian pop at it's finest! :D

I'm 50 and I still listen to new music, new stuff I like? Dixie Chicks. (newest is a bit too geocentric), No Doubt. I love Gwen Steffani. Great content over compressed too loud, sorta ruins it for me. Some of the best new stuff I have heard is from AKUS. (Alison Krauss & Union Station) "Lucky One" is such a cool song!

"Give you a song and a one night stand,
You'll be lookin' at a happy man,
Cause you're the Lucky One."

No gimmicks, no studio magic, just great singing and virtuoso playing.

It's not that we're out of touch Steve, it's that we have a memory when music was of a higher caliber. Fats

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Originally posted by Cedar Flat Fats:
It's not that we're out of touch Steve, it's that we have a memory when music was of a higher caliber.

I know I am only 45, but I don't remember it that way!

My point in generating this list was to try to highlight that when we look back over time we still don't count all that many great groups. IF you consider there were probably over 100,000 new groups on the radio in the past 30 years, this group of people tends to zero in on the same couple of dozen over with most of the variation being based on genre (i/e pop vs rock vs hair vs glit) etc.

Our memories tend to filter out the bad. At least that is my opinion.

Steve

but it isvery hard to remember all the tops!!!!! 5 are just to few!!!!!LOL
Supertramp, Uriah heep, Polie, Maillion, Kiss etc etc... they do not come at mind at first but....

70's
Allman Bro's
Skynyrd
Zepplin
Aerosmith
Boston
80's
Van Halen
Def Leppard
U2
Queensryche
Ozzy

90's
Alice in Chains
Fuel
Puddle of Mud
Nirvana
Dashboard Confesional

Okay, here goes:

70's:
- Led Zeppelin (incredible all around band)
- Elton John (Bernie Taupin)
- Steely Dan (studio kings, no doubt)
- Pink Floyd (engineered by Alan Parsons so I also will mention The Alan Parsons Project even though that was not really a band per se)
- Lynyrd Skynyrd (love 'em or hate 'em)

80's:
- Stevie Ray Vaughn (Jimi reincarnated, with an blues twist)
- U2 (diversity in each album)
- Police (melded pop with reggae)
- Aerosmith (great come back)
- Van Halen (the ultimate party band)

90's:
- Jellyfish (studio masters of the nineties)
- Toad The Wet Sprocket (great songwriting)
- Stone Temple Pilots (first 2 records)
- Jeff Buckley (gone too soon)
- Del Amitri (worlds greatest unknown band)

Ironic that I mention no women in anyof my choices. Perhaps that could be a thread all its own. From personal experience, it is very hard to stay focused on just music when a woman or two is in the band. Just read the biography of Fleetwood Mac in the 70's. Women in there own right can be extremely powerful in a band situation. I think they really need to be the band leader/songwriter in order to maintain a sense of focus where the music is concerned. Some great examples might be Heart, Pretenders, Aimee Mann. One from each decade.

I have left out quite a few great bands, but the thread asked for my top 5 in each decade. I did notice that my choices in the nineties decade tend to be more eclectic and out of the mainstream. Seems like the search for truly exceptional music/songwriting/performance has gotten harder to find. I feel that the level of talent is certainly still at a very high point, yet the music industry has chosen to push a more money driven product. What I liked when I was 15 is still a great part of what I like today. I can only hope that the candy wrapped music that is popular with todays teens will not evolve into an unending future of such artists. I think it will move off the mainsteam, much the way rock has done in my generation. Something else is sure to follow. Music always reinvents itself, just look back at history.
Matthew Corrigan, Atlanta
Awaiting the next big wave!!!
:roll:

60's

Doors
Cream
Hendrix
CCR
Who

70's

Crack The Sky
Rush
Queen
Yes
Gentle Giant
Pink Floyd

80's - Difficult for me to say here. Lots of junk abounded with the advent of new wave and techo.

Stevie Ray
Police (about as punk as I ever got)
Yes (some of it)
Rush
U2 (some of it)

90's - almost harder than the 80's. Grunge didn't really do anything for me.

Pearl Jam (a few cuts off their 1st album)
U2 (some)
Spock's Beard
Dream Theater (some, a little of them goes a long way)

Age may certainly play a part for us 40 and 50 somethings as to whether or not we find favor with today's popular music. After 40, I found it increasingly difficult to get terribly excited about most of the current crop of bands. I find I'm constantly battling with myself to keep from getting "old and set in my ways." According to my wife, it's a battle I've already lost. :)

Still, I think there's more to it than that. Formulaic pop tunes have been around for a long time, however, even the disposable stuff had a sonic depth and dimensionality to it that, to me anyway, seems to be missing from most of todays music. As I go deeper into the recording realm and educate my ears, I'm hearing the hyper-compressed and increasingly lifeless sound of modern music everywhere.

Examples are numerous but I'll mention two that really irritate my ears. I've been a die hard Rush fan since they began, but their latest disk sounds just plain horrible sonically - digital distortion all over the place. After about 15 minutes my ears had had enough. The tunes almost sounded better after being ripped to MP3 than the audio tracks.

Previous posts mentioned Audioslave. I agree that the tunes hold together pretty well, but then I'm generally a fan of riff-based stuff like that anyway. But again, there was a noticeable harshness to the disk that was unpleasant to my ears.

So I guess my point is that, yes, we may be old farts when it comes to today's music. I try to keep an open mind and heart when it comes to all styles of music even though I'm bordering on being a curmudgeon. Nonetheless, I can respect a well recorded and mastered album of music even if it's a genre I don't normally prefer. IMO, the current state of music marketing - ie., louder is better - just plain stinks. The practice of making an album louder than the last popular disk has robbed music of its dimensionality and life, indeed its very soul. Hey, I love a good rock tune cranked up on the stereo (anyone remember Frampton Comes Alive?). But there's a reason playback systems have volume controls. I'd rather turn it up on my end than have the record labels force mastering houses to squeeze the life out of an album just to make it louder than Brittney or Korn's last album.

Not being influential in the industry, and being well out of the current target market, I'll just have to live with it I suppose.

70's :
Gino Vanelli
Steely Dan
Bee Gees
ELO
Queen

80's :
Toto
Journey
Yes
Duran Duran
The Police

90's:
Seal
U2
Filter
Madonna
Depeche Mode

2000's :
BT
Paul Oakenfold