Overlap between the 60s and the 70s. Start with the Beatles and end with Springsteen. That gives us a nice 12-13 years period of great music.
Nice analysis! I agree that styles have morphed and spread out over time much more since (approximately the Pixies ;-)). As a musician, I enjoy almost all genres and times, everything from Vivaldi to Shpongle.
I did choose 1980 - 1990 though, if only because that was when I listened to more ‘popular’ music than any other period. Since the advent of online music, my tastes have become remarkably … errr… eclectic. Yeah, eclectic. That’s the ticket.
I like Baroque music, so…the 1730s? Ish?
If we have to stick to the 20th century, I guess I’d do 1920s. IIRC, we have some Benny Goodman, Paul Whiteman, George Gershwin, Franz Lehar and Sigmund Romberg from that era. Even Django Reinhart. Pretty decent musical cross section.
1940s followed by '50s and '60s.
65-75
For me, it will always be the '70s, for so many reasons. Chief of which is my birthdate: 1959. I have a theory: Everybody likes best, or has an enduring soft spot for, the music that was happening when they were 18.
Another vote for '65 to ‘75 (roughly.) Everything Beatles, Motown, The Mamas and the Papas, Beach Boys, the song Born To Be Wild, Leon Russell and Todd Rundgren, Bette Midler and Carole King and Melissa Manchester…Hendrix and Joplin, the Kinks…just to name a few. Some of those whiny protest songs were Blowin’ In the Wind, Has Anybody Seen (Abraham, Martin and John) and What’s Going On. (Don’t want to forget Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Band, The Commodores, the Eagles…) Basically melodic and stirring. It was a magical time.
Maybe it’s just the company I keep or that the wheel o’ nostalgia hasn’t quite come around yet, but I don’t think I know anyone my age who really likes what was happening in mainstream music during the late-90’s early-2000’s when we were 18-ish. Most of the people I grew up with (myself included) listened to grunge and early alternative, but really didn’t like what happened in the mainstream rock around 1995 or so. Instead, we went back and started listening to the stuff from the 80’s back to the 60’s that influenced the stuff we heard in the early 90’s, which was suddenly very accessible with Napster and the other file-sharing services that cropped up at that time.
I think going forward in the days of digital music, a lot fewer people are going to automatically identify with the pop music of their youth.
At 18 in 1995, I was a huge music buff: I spent my money buying records, and my time listening to music and playing bass. I had and still have zero interest in the music made then. My late teen days were filled with music by Pink Floyd, Rush, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Sparks, The Beatles, Jethro Tull, Genesis, 10cc, Kansas etc., or stuff that was made before I was born. In the mid- '90’s, I remember my friends raving about Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Oasis and Blur, but they are just vague names from a decade best forgotten, to me.
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Like numerous other posters, my favorite period was 1965-75. (I might refine it to 1964-1973.) In the poll, I had to go with the 1960s mainly due to the Beatles, but the 1970s is a close second. (And not surprisingly, 1965-1975 encompasses my teenage years.)
2010-present. I don’t see how people ever got by before Ke$ha became popular.
I concur with every word.
What’s with the 80s doing well in this poll??
Oh, yeah… “Rio,” by Duran Duran. 
Good god, not in my case. I was 18 in 1988, when about the only thing that didn’t suck was REM, the Pogues, and some rap.
My music tastes peak the year I was born – 1970 – and decline slowly from there, in both temporal directions.
If I have any soft spot for music occurring in real time, it would be circa 1993 to 1997, when I was in my mid-20s… Beck, Red Hit Chili Peppers, Natalie Merchant, Cafe Tacuba…
Well, as one who picked the '80s and has basically no use for the dinosaur/blooze rock of the '70s, here are some reasons for my choice:
Husker Du
The Replacements
R.E.M.
Prince (all his best music was made in the '80s)
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Pixies
The Beastie Boys
The Feelies
Sonic Youth
New Order
Public Enemy
The Smiths
The Cure
Robyn Hitchcock
The (English) Beat
X
De La Soul
U2
Squeeze
Run-DMC
The Psychedelic Furs
The Go-Betweens
The Stone Roses
The Housemartins
The Pogues
Dinosaur Jr.
Billy Bragg
Pet Shop Boys
Echo & The Bunnymen
Living Colour
Midnight Oil
The The
etc., etc.
There were also a bunch of acts who started in the '70s but did great work in the '80s: Elvis Costello, The Jam, The Clash, XTC, Queen, Rush. And those who started in the '80s and went on to do more in the '90s: Nirvana, Yo La Tengo, Superchunk, The La’s, Morrissey. A great decade, if you know where to look.
This is my view too.
Woody, I actually agree with everything you wrote. Tons of folks were making wonderfully melodic pop, creative music videos, discovering “world music”, and rockin’ out in the 80s. Good to be reminded that it wasn’t just Madonna and Freddy Goes to Hollywood.
But I’m still a bit surprised it’s doing so well in this poll, given the other choices.
I’d go 1965-1975.
Second choice is 1930-1940.
80s, and woodstockbirdybird’s list could have been mine (with the addition of a stack of other 4AD bands and Goth stuff)
I picked 2000-2010, even though my age demographic would have predicted the previous decade. My favorite music of 2000-2010 comes from bands that were active in the 90s (Like Linkin Park, Tool, Green Day) but got better as time went on.