# What 5 year period of music defined you most? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 3, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910 "2010-10-03T13:32:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/21 "2010-10-03T20:20:38Z")
66 - 71 For what Martin Mull called The Big Folk Music Scare of the Sixties. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/22 "2010-10-03T20:37:34Z")
Geez. . . I guess 1976-1981. Fleetwood Mac’s _Rumours_, Kansas’ _Leftoverture_, the first 4 Tom Petty albums, Queen’s _A Night at the Opera_ (released in November’75, but played heavily throughout '76), Heart’s _Dreamboat Annie_, _Hotel California_, _Bat Out of Hell_, _Frampton Comes Alive!_, _The Wall_, the first 4 David Lee Roth-era Van Halen albums, the first 3 Dire Straits albums, the first 4 ‘The Cars’ albums, the first 2 Boston albums, 4 Bob Seger studio albums and _Live Bullet_. . . and I’ve hardly scratched the surface. ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/23 "2010-10-03T20:37:39Z")
1998-2003. Rasputina’s _How We Quit The Forest_. Type O Negative’s _World Coming Down_. Tori Amos’ _From the Choir Girl Hotel_. Anything Pearl Jam did. Depeche Mode’s _Ultra_. These were albums that probably defined me more than anything, almost all released during that 5 year time period. I had never really thought of that before… ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/24 "2010-10-03T21:50:31Z")
I’m all over the place, I couldn’t possibly choose one five year period. Maybe I’ve lived too long, ha ha. Nonetheless, for all intents and purposes the music stopped for me in the late 80’s. There are songs I’ve liked here and there after that, but I’m not real enthused about them as I was back in high school days. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/25 "2010-10-03T22:27:22Z")
[QUOTE=Homer Simpson] Why do you need new bands? Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It’s a scientific fact. [/quote] Homer was wrong by two decades. I’m basically of the same age and musical tastes as **Mahaloth**. I’d swap out Pearl Jam for Smashing Pumpkins, throw in My Bloody Valentine, Catherine Wheel, and Belly. The rise of Bush signaled the end of new bands being interesting to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/26 "2010-10-04T06:13:05Z")
1979-83 (Five years, damnit!) Pink Floyd: _The Wall_ Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: _Damn the Torpedoes_ _Peter Gabriel III_ The Police: _Synchronicity_ Fleetwood Mac: _Tusk_ Kate Bush: _Never For Ever_ David Bowie: _Scary Monsters_ Devo: _Freedom of Choice_ Roxy Music: _Avalon_ Talking Heads: _Stop Making Sense_ Elton John: _Too Low for Zero_ Michael Jackson: _Thriller_ _“Weird Al” Yankovic in 3D_ _Toto IV_ Midnight Oil: _10…1_ My tastes are much broader than that, but this was the time period when I was most excited by the popular music of the period. It’s the centre to which all my musical interests can be traced back. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/27 "2010-10-04T16:11:01Z")
1977-1982: The end of Disco, the beginning of New Wave. Yes, I still like both genres. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/28 "2010-10-04T19:36:34Z")
It’s a little vague for me, the only thing I can say for sure is that it HAS to include the year 1999 as three of my top five favorite albums were released that year. I really think that the underground metal and rock scene really started to come into it’s own in the mid to late 90s, and it finally seemed to start gaining a lot of momentum with some major breakthroughs in technology, notably Napster and other related internet music technologies along with high quality and intexpensive digital mastering technologies. What this meant was that a lot of bands that had previously had poor quality recordings and limited distribution because of monetary constraints suddenly had access to inexpensive recording and virtually unlimited distribution via the internet. Notably, Napster really came on strong in the latter part of 1999 and into 2000. I think this whole thing not only helped get some bands vastly increase their exposure, but that very exposure heavily influenced all the bands that were arriving on the scene at the time. Even a lot of established bands seemed to have been influenced by the sudden huge influx of new material. So, I guess I’d describe a roughly 5-year period of late '99 to around '04 or '05 as being the definitive period for me. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910/29 "2010-10-04T20:26:16Z")
I just remembered that _Stop Making Sense_ and _In 3D_ are from '84, so instead I submit… Men at Work: _Business as Usual_ Van Halen: _1984_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-5-year-period-of-music-defined-you-most/555910.md?page=1)