1980s vs. 1990s - Which decade had the better music?

Which decade had the better music?

  • Total voters
    130
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90s was the pinnicle of musical technology. They had all the gear and know how to make the best sounding records without the technological crutches of the 2000's. The 80s were a great time in music but the advancements in digital technologies such as drum machines were so much better a decade later. Thats why a lot of 80s records sound so dated at this point whereas even 70s music seems more timeless. The 80s sound was more due to the technological limitation than it was creativity.
 
i think it depends on the kind of music you like. if you're more into pop, punk, soft rock type of stuff, the 80's for sure. if you're more into r&b, metal, hip hop, etc. it's going to be the 90's for sure. the internet killed music. musicians played music because they enjoyed it, obviously. but they also played to make a living. removing the aspect of being able to live with simply making music destroyed music in general. that's why we haven't had any great music for at least twenty years. new music is computerized garbage with no soul.
 
Ironically i just found this thread that goes over a lot of what I mentioned in my post.

 
Darkavius said:
Yeah, the answer depends on what genre of music we are talking about. I love 80's pop and 80's hip hop but love the 90's rock era. I'm actually interested in some people's favorite albums/songs of both eras so I can hear music I forgot about.

The one thing the 90's got wrong looking back at it was the Spanish Pop introduction such as Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez.
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I voted 80's but you think the 90's botched Spanish Pop? Ricky Martin and J-Lo were huge stars and maybe it was only in SoCal but I remember a ton of other Spanish crossover stars going mainstream like Martika, Sa-Fire and this dude was pretty much Ecuadorian Vanilla Ice:

 
90s easily. The rap was way better and not so corny. The metal was way better and heavier. 90s pop was way better.

80s rap was so corny and simplistic
80s pop was corny as hell
80s hair metal was corny as hell and musically just lame af and not even metal.

That's the biggest thing I associate with 80s music - corny.

Synthwave started in the 80s, which is amazing. So the 80s have that.
 
ChickenBrother said:
I voted 80's but you think the 90's botched Spanish Pop? Ricky Martin and J-Lo were huge stars and maybe it was only in SoCal but I remember a ton of other Spanish crossover stars going mainstream like Martika, Sa-Fire and this dude was pretty much Ecuadorian Vanilla Ice:
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I say they botched Spanish Pop because looking back at a lot of Spanish Pop does not hold up in my opinion. Old Enrique Iglesias is okay and Selena is great but a lot of Spanish Pop especially once they crossed over to the big labels sucks. Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Shakira all had bad English language albums imo. It's disappointing to me because I thought the Spanish "Vuelve" album by Ricky Martin was good and Marc Anthony has some good Spanish salsa albums.

Maybe I just expected too much considering that other Spanish musicians before them had good records and albums such as Cypress Hill and Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine that crossed over into pop.
 
TeTe said:
Hard to choose, but I'm biased toward the 90s since I was in high school during the early to mid 90s. That pocket between 90-94 will always be the goat for me
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List of great albums between 90 to 95 just to prove the case:

"Dookie" Green Day (94)
"Foo Fighters" Foo Fighters (95)
"Siamese Dream" Smashing Pumpkins (93)
"Definitely Maybe" Oasis (94)
"Rage Against The Machine" Rage Against The Machine (92)
"Dirt" Alice In Chains (92)
"Doggystyle" Snoop Dogg (93)
"The Chronic" Dr. Dre (92)
 
Pliny Pete said:
I enjoy a melange of both decades, 80's had a great run of of bubblegum pop, the rise of hip hop and some solid RnB offerings plus Michael Jackson and Prince
90's had the emergence of West Coast gangsta rap and Bay Area Mobb Music, an amazing run of RnB acts and a nice selection of radio hip hop hits plus Prince
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Darkavius said:
I say they botched Spanish Pop because looking back at a lot of Spanish Pop does not hold up in my opinion. Old Enrique Iglesias is okay and Selena is great but a lot of Spanish Pop especially once they crossed over to the big labels sucks. Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Shakira all had bad English language albums imo. It's disappointing to me because I thought the Spanish "Vuelve" album by Ricky Martin was good and Marc Anthony has some good Spanish salsa albums.

Maybe I just expected too much considering that other Spanish musicians before them had good records and albums such as Cypress Hill and Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine that crossed over into pop.
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Agree the artists you named sounded better in Spanish than English - Spanish is just a nicer sounding lyrical language and it's hard to replicate that by simply doing an English translation of a Spanish song. But even still, Ricky Martin, J-Lo, Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, etc. still managed to be mainstream A-list stars for a time.

Not everyone can have the staying power of a Michael Jackson or Madonna who became bigger than the label and kept cranking out hits and staying relevant for decades. Being big for only a few years and then fading into obscurity is much more common for pop stars of every genre.
 
Flower2dPeople said:
I will not stand here and and let you disrespect Rockwell like that.
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Some of the 80s pop hits corniness is charming, I can't lie. But it's like every single song from that era is just corny as hell.

Also! Idk wtf was happening in recording studios in the 80s, but god damn the production in that decade was just atrocious. Even incredible bands, that I love deeply, like Fleetwood Mac, sounded like ass on their 80s records.
 
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