When you hear the term “oldies” in reference to music, which decade would be the most recent that you would consider to be an oldie? IOW, if someone mentioned an oldie from the 80’s and your thought was “That’s too recent. Oldies are from the 70’s and before.” You’d vote for the 70’s in the poll.
To me, “oldies” means 60s music (or more birth of rock n roll from late mid-late 50s to early 70s.) But I’m almost 42.
I guess, technically, I should have voted “70s” in the poll, since my definition does creep into around 1972 or so at the latest end. But I voted 60s for the purposes of the poll.
When I started listening to the oldies station as a kid in the 1980s, it was mostly '50s music with some early, pre-Beatles '60s. Now, I don’t mind if they throw some early Beatles in there, but Supertramp and The Police *aren’t *oldies, even if they’re older than the oldies were when I started listening. '70s music of a certain genre is and always will be “Classic Rock”, not oldies. The 80s has new wave, roots rock, hip hop, heavy metal, etc, none of which are oldies. Oldies isn’t a moving target anymore, or at least shouldn’t be. We’ve moved beyond that type of categorization now. And grunge will never be oldies! Ever!
Now get off my lawn.
Yeah, that’s how it is for me. Although it’s disconcerting for me, as stuff like Appetite for Destruction ends up on “Classic Rock” stations these days. Though, honestly, I really can’t disagree too much with that, even though I grew up with classic rock being 70s music.
IMHO, the last two decades and maybe three are automatically disqualified , as nothing produced in any of those decades will ever merit inclusion on any list, oldies or otherwise.
The 80s was pretty much the supernova of popular music, which just ceased to exist after that in any recognizable form, except as a burned out cinder… And it’s not an age thing, I was in my 50s i the 80s.
The prototype for the music of the nineties onward would be those music videos that Beavis and Butthead watched.
I’d go from about Buddy Holly in the late 50s to stuff in the 80s like Van Halen and Neil Young.
But my real focus would be mid-60s to mid-70s. That period, to me, was the absolute apex of creative song writing.
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
When I was younger, the “oldies” were the songs from the 50s and 60s.
When I was slightly older, the “oldies” began including the songs from the 70s, especially pre-disco.
Now, I’m older still, and the “oldies” certainly include anything from the 80s. Most of my students at high school recognize those songs, but only as things their parents listened to, hence, “oldies”.
Early 60s. Psychedelic rock, the Stones, etc. are too new to be considered oldies. Some of the early Beatles output might apply but not the later stuff. Buddy Holly would count.
Classic rock might overlap both oldies and late 60s/early 70s music, but more of the latter.
It’s like how “indie” is a genre even if the band clears millions per year and is signed to a major record label. It’s a specific sound, divorced from the meaning. Old music can be oldies, but not all older music counts.
I said 70s but that is because, when I was growing up, the local oldies station allowed some carry-over into the early 70s for established 60s acts. So a track from Bridge Over Troubled Waters or Imagine might make the cut.
Oh, and American Pie which got played pretty frequently.
If the term “oldies” has any meaning, it can’t change the time period. Songs from the 50s and per-Beatles 60s are oldies. From then to the beginning of disco is “classic rock.” Then things fragment: punk, new wave, pop, disco, grunge, etc.
I listened to oldies stations in the 70s and the music was late 50s and 60s.
Anyone says 2000, I’m cutting my wrists. 
When I listened to the local oldies station in the 80s (Chicago’s 104.3 with Dick Biondi*), they certainly included some early 70s stuff as described above. Not to imply that your local oldies station did the same, of course. Likewise, though some here say that the Rolling Stones don’t qualify, you’d get some mellower Stones tunes on there like “Ruby Tuesday”.
*Dick Biondi has quite the oldies pedigree although he obviously wasn’t programming manager for the station. I only bring it up because I was reading the Wiki with the appropriate amount of being impressed.
Who’s the wiseacre with no short-term memory who voted 2010s? “Live in the now!” must be his motto 
When I was a kid, “oldies” meant “50s and 60s”, and so that’s what it always means to me. And yes, I know that this is illogical, and that the songs from my youth are older now than my “oldies” were then. Doesn’t change my opinion.
I’m 40. “Oldies” to me means '50s and early '60s music. Late '60s up through the late '70s is “classic rock.”
The poll results make me sad. I shouldn’t have come in here…
I would not agree with that. “Oldies” goes beyond pre-Beatles stuff. The Wikipedia definition is the one I grew up with, and seems to be almost exactly the dates I give in my first post:
I’ve never heard classic rock being defined quite that early. Usually, it’s more like mid-60s to the end of the 70s, even 80s. (Nowadays, it would include a lot of the 80s, but when I was high school '89-'93, the format generally cut off around 1979 or so) Much of it was contemporaneous with disco; it certainly did not end with disco.
But I do think these are relative terms, and they expand and shift as time goes by. Most “oldies” stations that I listen to no longer seem to play 50s music, but rather start in the 60s.
My working definition : any song that came out after synthetizers became ubiquitous cannot be an oldie. So, 1970s.
Oldies are anything not in the present decade, so 2000s. Actually, anything over 4 years should qualify.