Who's the biggest bands in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s?

[Takes Two To Tango]

I just picked those decades because rock has died after that pretty much.

My picks:

1960s - The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones
1970s - Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Eagles
1980s - U2, Van Halen, The Police
1990s - Nirvana, Pearl Jam, R.E.M

 

[TCE]

60's - Beatles, followed by the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd
70's - Led Zeppelin (although they actually formed in 1968, but their success begun in the 70's I think), followed by Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath
80's - Guns n Rose, followed by the Smiths, Dire Straits and the Police
90's - Nirvana, followed by Oasis and Radiohead

Fuck me, did the UK produce absolutely amazing bands back in the day?

Aside from Nirvana and Guns N Roses, all other bands I listed are British bands.

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

60's - Beatles, followed by the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd
70's - Led Zeppelin (although they actually formed in 1968, but their success begun in the 70's I think), followed by Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath
80's - Guns n Rose, followed by the Smiths, Dire Straits and the Police
90's - Nirvana, followed by Oasis and Radiohead

Fuck me, did the UK produce absolutely amazing bands back in the day?

Thank you for adding a more detailed explanation. Those are good picks.

 

[Boomb]

60's - Beatles, followed by the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd
70's - Led Zeppelin (although they actually formed in 1968, but their success begun in the 70's I think), followed by Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath
80's - Guns n Rose, followed by the Smiths, Dire Straits and the Police
90's - Nirvana, followed by Oasis and Radiohead

Not bad, not bad at all.

 

[Darkavius]

90's - Nirvana, followed by Oasis and Radiohead

Fuck me, did the UK produce absolutely amazing bands back in the day?

I would add Green Day and The Red Hot Chili Peppers (I know they have a sketchy history) to the 90's list and depending on how you view them I would add The Beastie Boys to the 80's and 90's list. Green Day's Dookie album is classic and from 1994 to 1997 all 3 of those albums are good. Red Hot Chili Peppers have really good music between 1985 and 1991. Californication and One Hot Minute are good albums but not as good as what they produced in the 80's. However, since Blood Sugar Sex Magik was in the 90's I say put them there.

I shouldn't have to go into great detail about The Beastie Boys. The arguably have the best 4 albums back to back in music imo. Licensed to Ill, Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head (I believe they played their own instruments on this album) and Ill Communication.

To TCE's point about the UK though they did the damn thing in the 80's and 90's. Oasis is one of my favorite bands ever. Definitely Maybe, What's The Story Morning Glory and The Masterplan are GOAT level albums. The UK had banger after banger after banger. They had Wham!, The Spice Girls, Radiohead, Blur, Jamiroquai and others.

 

[mozfonky]

60's: The Beatles, The Stones,Sly and the Family Stone, The Beach Boys
70's: Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, I guess i'll say off rep because I was never a fan, The Eagles.
80's: Prince And The Revolution, U2,

Many talented groups, so many but these come to mind first. I can't speak for the 90's because I stopped listening to current music outside of my stalwarts.

 

[Sweater of AV]

60's - Beatles, followed by the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd were far, far bigger in the 70s than 60s. It's not even really comparable.

60s: Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Saucerful of Secrets, Soundtrack from the Film More, Ummagumma.
70s: Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, Obscured by Clouds, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall.

Fuck me, did the UK produce absolutely amazing bands back in the day?

100%.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

If we are simply going off record sales:

60s- Beatles
70s- Pink Floyd
80s- AC/DC
90s- Nirvana

 

[Thai Domi]

The Stones could realistically be listed in the 60s, 70s and 80s

 

[TYR-I]

60's - Beatles, followed by the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd
70's - Led Zeppelin (although they actually formed in 1968, but their success begun in the 70's I think), followed by Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath
80's - Guns n Rose, followed by the Smiths, Dire Straits and the Police
90's - Nirvana, followed by Oasis and Radiohead

Fuck me, did the UK produce absolutely amazing bands back in the day?

Aside from Nirvana and Guns N Roses, all other bands I listed are British bands.

VH... Aerosmith...Metallica... Thank God we don't have to choose between British and American ! Be too hard

 

[My Spot]

90s would be either Metallica or Nirvana based on album sales.

 

[HUGHPHUG]

Fuck me, did the UK produce absolutely amazing bands back in the day?

We ran things

 

[Spam On Rye]

Don't have energy for full list but I know Back In Black was fucking everywhere when it came out and GNR, Nirvana, and Soundgarden were big early to mid 90s and Green Day was huge a little after those bands.

 

[Spam On Rye]

60's - Beatles, followed by the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd
70's - Led Zeppelin (although they actually formed in 1968, but their success begun in the 70's I think), followed by Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath
80's - Guns n Rose, followed by the Smiths, Dire Straits and the Police
90's - Nirvana, followed by Oasis and Radiohead

Fuck me, did the UK produce absolutely amazing bands back in the day?

Aside from Nirvana and Guns N Roses, all other bands I listed are British bands.

Smiths and Stone Roses most def.

 

[Lycandroid]

60s Beatles
70s Pink Floyd
80s U2
90s Nirvana

If the metric is who is the biggest by record sales than this is the only answer and this is not a subjective question.

for me

60s beatles
70s black sabbath
80s queen/judas priest
90s metallica

 

[Unheralded Truth]

60's - Beatles
70's - Sabbath
80's - The Smiths
90's - Nirvana

 

[mozfonky]

We ran things

uk put out great music. even in the 80's when they tried to hype the boy georges and spandau ballets,whams,, and duran durans as a second british invasion, there was some stellar stuff, didn't quite live up to the original british invasion but they did ok.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

60's - Beatles, followed by the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd
70's - Led Zeppelin (although they actually formed in 1968, but their success begun in the 70's I think), followed by Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath
80's - Guns n Rose, followed by the Smiths, Dire Straits and the Police
90's - Nirvana, followed by Oasis and Radiohead

Fuck me, did the UK produce absolutely amazing bands back in the day?

Aside from Nirvana and Guns N Roses, all other bands I listed are British bands.

You’re missing bands like ‘The Eagles’ and ‘Skynard’.. the US had giant ass bands back then too

 

[mozfonky]

The Stones could realistically be listed in the 60s, 70s and 80s

yes, they could, they had phenomenal longevity and great songs throughout. Undercover of the Night and she was hot are top shelf in my mind. I even like Micks' solo work in the mid 80's, lucky in love and Hard Woman are terrific. Hard Woman is an all time favorite of mine, both versions.

 

[HUGHPHUG]

uk put out great music. even in the 80's when they tried to hype the boy georges and spandau ballets,whams,, and duran durans as a second british invasion, there was some stellar stuff, didn't quite live up to the original british invasion but they did ok.

I think by the 80s we were slipping, punk was our last real effort to compete at the top level. We had some amazing soul but nothing that reached the upper echelons en masse. I'm not sure pop music really counts, mass manufactured for greedy record label owners, but, come the late 80s and early 90s we started to dominate the dance music scene; acid house and drum and bass, whether you like them or not, were HUGE and the UK offered the best by far. There was also the rock/dance music crossover with the likes of Happy Mondays, Stone Roses etc that we did better than most.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no patriot when it comes to music, my love for hip hop, funk, soul, jazz, reggae etc means I'll forever hold music from other nations above these shores