# Worst Year for Music in the last 50 Years? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903 "2014-06-16T13:43:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/1 "2014-06-16T13:43:26Z")
I’ve been trying to narrow this down…for me, the combination of an electronic drum kit combined with keyboard players using whatever new/different sounds they could find on their cutting edge synths in the mid-'80s led to some of the worst music ever. Although such great albums as The Replacements’ _Tim_, Tom Waits’ _Rain Dogs_, The Cure’s _The Head on the Door_, and The Smiths’ _Meat Is Murder_, among others, all came out that year, it can’t outweigh the pop drivel, so I’m going to go with 1985. The top 20 Billboard songs: 1 Careless Whisper Wham! 2 Like A Virgin Madonna 3 Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Wham! 4 I Want To Know What Love Is Foreigner 5 I Feel For You Chaka Khan 6 Out Of Touch Daryl Hall and John Oates 7 Everybody Wants To Rule The World Tears For Fears 8 Money For Nothing Dire Straits 9 Crazy For You Madonna 10 Take On Me A-Ha 11 Everytime You Go Away Paul Young 12 Easy Lover Phil Collins and Philip Bailey 13 Can’t Fight This Feeling REO Speedwagon 14 We Built This City Starship 15 The Power Of Love Huey Lewis and The News 16 Don’t You (Forget About Me) Simple Minds 17 Cherish Kool and The Gang 18 St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion) John Parr 19 The Heat Is On Glenn Frey 20 We Are The World U.S.A. For Africa (Rest of the list [here](http://www.jamrockentertainment.com/billboard-music-top-100-songs-listed-by-year/top-100-songs-1985.html)) ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/2 "2014-06-16T17:59:49Z")
Minus 2 or 3 of those, that’s a pretty good mix tape! ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/3 "2014-06-16T18:04:10Z")
I’m going to nominate 1990, the year before music started back up again. 1 “Hold On” Wilson Phillips 2 “It Must Have Been Love” Roxette 3 “Nothing Compares 2 U” Sinéad O’Connor 4 “Poison” Bell Biv DeVoe 5 “Vogue” Madonna 6 “Vision of Love” Mariah Carey 7 “Another Day in Paradise” Phil Collins 8 “Hold On” En Vogue 9 “Cradle of Love” Billy Idol 10 “Blaze of Glory” Jon Bon Jovi 11 “Do Me!” Bell Biv DeVoe 12 “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” Michael Bolton 13 “Pump Up the Jam” Technotronic featuring Felly 14 “Opposites Attract” Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair 15 “Escapade” Janet Jackson 16 “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You” Heart 17 “Close to You” Maxi Priest 18 “Black Velvet” Alannah Myles 19 “Release Me” Wilson Phillips 20 “Don’t Know Much” Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville Hmm, so far Phil Collins and Madonna are the strongest - or weakest - links between my list and the OP 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/4 "2014-06-16T18:16:27Z")
I’ll go with many years in the 1970s. Crappy soft rock like “Don’t Give Up on Us Now,” “How Much I Feel,” and “Afternoon Delight” dominated the Billboard charts. I’m glad I wasn’t old enough to suffer through that garbage. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/5 "2014-06-16T18:33:51Z")
'85? Besides the albums you mentioned, there were also excellent works by The Jesus & Mary Chain, Meat Puppets, Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, Hoodoo Gurus, Dramarama, Camper Van Beethoven, R.E.M., Husker Du (2 great records that year), and tons of others. I think a much worse year would come from the early '70s - here’s a partial list of the top 100 Billboard songs from 1971: Three Dog Night - Joy to the World Donny Osmond - Go Away Little Girl John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads Tony Orlando & Dawn - Knock Three Times James Taylor - You’ve Got A Friend Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down Ocean - Put Your Hand in the Hand The Carpenters - For All We Know Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind Helen Reddy - I Don’t Know How To Love Him Lobo - Me and You and a Dog Named Boo Bread - If Andy Williams - (Where Do I Begin?) Love Story Cat Stevens - Wild World Jerry Reed - When You’re Hot, You’re Hot Bobby Goldsboro - Watching Scotty Grow Neil Diamond - I Am…I Said Pretty much a shitstorm of awfulness. ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/6 "2014-06-16T19:47:08Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > I think a much worse year would come from the early '70s - here’s a partial list of the top 100 Billboard songs from 1971: > > Three Dog Night - Joy to the World > Donny Osmond - Go Away Little Girl > John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads > Tony Orlando & Dawn - Knock Three Times > . > . > . > Pretty much a shitstorm of awfulness. Agreed, that is a pretty banal list of tunes, but '71 also gave us these albums: Led Zep IV Stones - Sticky Fingers The Who - Who’s Next Black Sabbath - Paranoid Marvin Gaye - What’s Goin’ On Sly & The Family Stone - There’s a Riot Goin’ On John Prine’s 1st Album Doors - LA Woman Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey Flamin’ Groovies - Teenage Head Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies Pink Floyd - Meddle JJ Cale - Naturally In general, (and maybe because I was a pre-teen in those years and have associations with a carefree existence) I can stomach soft/saccharine rock much easier than 80’s cheese. ZipperJJ, I just took a look at albums from 1990…you might have something there. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/7 "2014-06-16T21:28:19Z")
1. With one or two exceptions, dreck. 1 “I Will Always Love You” Whitney Houston 2 “Whoomp! (There It Is)” Tag Team 3 “Can’t Help Falling in Love” UB40 4 “That’s the Way Love Goes” Janet Jackson 5 “Freak Me” Silk 6 “Weak” SWV 7 “If I Ever Fall in Love” Shai 8 “Dreamlover” Mariah Carey 9 “Rump Shaker” Wreckx-n-Effect 10 “Informer” Snow 11 “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” Dr. Dre 12 “In the Still of the Nite” Boyz II Men 13 “Don’t Walk Away” Jade 14 “Knockin’ da Boots” H-Town 15 “Lately” Jodeci 16 “Dazzey Duks” Duice 17 “Show Me Love” Robin S. 18 “A Whole New World” Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle 19 “If” Janet Jackson ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/8 "2014-06-16T21:43:21Z")
If the category is worst top 20 then I’d agree that 1993 wins so far. Of the ones I’ve heard there aren’t even any I’d put on my MP3 player even if I got them for free. At least with the other lists so far there are a couple I would (but not pay for.) Which isn’t to say that there aren’t any from this millennium that wouldn’t win. I just likely have heard of none of the songs on their top 20 (despite the fact that most of the music I own is from this millennium: it’s mostly rock and rock usually doesn’t even crack the top 100 let alone top 20.) ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/9 "2014-06-17T03:10:39Z")
I don’t know enough about music from the past few decades to comment on that period, but I will say that, although there was a lot of good music in the 1970s, 1974 seemed to be a sort of trough… a lot of the great artists of the late 60s - early 70s were losing momentum and punk/New Wave was still pretty much in the future. There’s almost no one about whom I can say, “My favorite album of theirs came out in 1974.” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/10 "2014-06-17T03:15:28Z")
I agree that the top 20 from 1993 is worse than the top 20 from 1990 (because BBD makes everything better) but the albums from 1990 were less impressive than 1993. 1990 doesn’t have anything that stands out to me, except\* Ritual de lo habitual\* which didn’t do much except get Jane’s Addiction on the radio more, and _Fear of a Black Planet_ which gave us “Fight the Power” yes but… 1993, album-wise…well just [check out the Google search results](https://www.google.com/search?q=1993+albums&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb) (at least in a desktop browser). All of the sexiest albums are up in there. You got Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Tool. A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop and Wu Tang. Bjork, Liz Phair, the Cranberries. Counting Crows and Smashing Pumpkins. Maybe 1993 wasn’t a good year for pop radio or something but damn just looking at those album covers makes me weak in the knees!!! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/11 "2014-06-17T03:56:25Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I’m going to nominate 1990, the year before music started back up again. My word, they are all dreadful. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/12 "2014-06-17T04:18:02Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > '85? Besides the albums you mentioned, there were also excellent works by The Jesus & Mary Chain, Meat Puppets, Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, Hoodoo Gurus, Dramarama, Camper Van Beethoven, R.E.M., Husker Du (2 great records that year), and tons of others. I think a much worse year would come from the early '70s - here’s a partial list of the top 100 Billboard songs from 1971: > > Three Dog Night - Joy to the World > Donny Osmond - Go Away Little Girl > John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads > Tony Orlando & Dawn - Knock Three Times > James Taylor - You’ve Got A Friend > Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down > Ocean - Put Your Hand in the Hand > The Carpenters - For All We Know > Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind > Helen Reddy - I Don’t Know How To Love Him > Lobo - Me and You and a Dog Named Boo > Bread - If > Andy Williams - (Where Do I Begin?) Love Story > Cat Stevens - Wild World > Jerry Reed - When You’re Hot, You’re Hot > Bobby Goldsboro - Watching Scotty Grow > Neil Diamond - I Am…I Said > > Pretty much a shitstorm of awfulness. Here’s another partial list from the same year and list: Carole King-It’s Too Late Janis Joplin-Me and Bobby McGee Corneilus Brothers-Treat Her Like a Lady Paul McCartney and Wings-Uncle Albert Bill Withers-Ain’t No Sunshine George Harrison-My Sweet Lord Issac Hayes-Theme from ‘Shaft’ ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/13 "2014-06-17T04:52:31Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Here’s another partial list from the same year and list: > > Carole King-It’s Too Late > Janis Joplin-Me and Bobby McGee > Corneilus Brothers-Treat Her Like a Lady > Paul McCartney and Wings-Uncle Albert > Bill Withers-Ain’t No Sunshine > George Harrison-My Sweet Lord > Issac Hayes-Theme from ‘Shaft’ Also (going just by singles and not albums): - Marvin Gaye - “What’s Going On”, “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)”, and “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” - Al Green - “Tired of Being Alone” and “Let’s Stay Together” - Derek and the Dominos - “Layla” (It also charted again in 1972.) ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/14 "2014-06-17T09:39:27Z")
If we stick to pop chart stuff then I’ll vote for 1993, too. There was a terrible slump in pop music that year which, come to think of it, also extended to 1994. I couldn’t turn on the tv or the radio without being bored to tears within minutes. Album-wise, though I’m not sure. There was at least **Björk** ’s _Debut_ which I remember listening to every night for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/15 "2014-06-17T10:53:08Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > 1974 seemed to be a sort of trough…There’s almost no one about whom I can say, “My favorite album of theirs came out in 1974.” To me, 1974 was a great year in music. King Crimson’s seminal “Red”, Deep Purple’s “Burn”, Gentle Giant’s “The Power and the Glory”, Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”, Yes’s “Relayer”, Sparks’ “Kimono My House”, Queen’s “Sheer Heart Attack”, 10cc’s “Sheet Music”, Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic” are just a sampler, although to be fair, there were greater individual years in the excellent 1970 - 1975 period. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/16 "2014-06-18T20:25:58Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I agree that the top 20 from 1993 is worse than the top 20 from 1990 (because BBD makes everything better) but the albums from 1990 were less impressive than 1993. > > 1990 doesn’t have anything that stands out to me, except\* Ritual de lo habitual\* which didn’t do much except get Jane’s Addiction on the radio more, and _Fear of a Black Planet_ which gave us “Fight the Power” yes but… > > 1993, album-wise…well just [check out the Google search results](https://www.google.com/search?q=1993+albums&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb) (at least in a desktop browser). All of the sexiest albums are up in there. You got Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Tool. A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop and Wu Tang. Bjork, Liz Phair, the Cranberries. Counting Crows and Smashing Pumpkins. > > Maybe 1993 wasn’t a good year for pop radio or something but damn just looking at those album covers makes me weak in the knees!!! Good point on the albums; which is kind of self serving as I own about half of that list… But if we are talking radio play I stand by '93 being a really good year to have a cd player or mp3’s on your computer (yes kids we had mp3s back in the day… just no players per se.) ☹ ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/17 "2014-06-19T04:35:04Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > To me, 1974 was a great year in music. King Crimson’s seminal “Red”, Deep Purple’s “Burn”, Gentle Giant’s “The Power and the Glory”, Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”, Yes’s “Relayer”, Sparks’ “Kimono My House”, Queen’s “Sheer Heart Attack”, 10cc’s “Sheet Music”, Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic” are just a sampler, although to be fair, there were greater individual years in the excellent 1970 - 1975 period. De gustibus, and all that… three of the albums on that list (_Red, Relayer_ and _Pretzel Logic_) would be on my list of “1974 albums that were good, but post-prime for the artist”… in my opinion, of course. I’ll give you _Lamb Lies Down_, though. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/18 "2014-06-19T17:47:35Z")
A lot of these lists bring back some bad memories. But to be honest, present day gets my vote. I can’t keep any local pop station on for more than 5 minutes before some auto-tuned, gimmick sound, gimmick rhythmed song comes on and shits all over my eardrums. [And get off my lawn!](http://5secondfilms.com/watch/old-man-petersons-lawn) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/19 "2014-06-19T18:10:33Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I’m going to nominate 1990, the year before music started back up again. Also the year we lost Stevie Ray Vaughn. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-year-for-music-in-the-last-50-years/690903/20 "2014-06-19T18:10:46Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > A lot of these lists bring back some bad memories. But to be honest, present day gets my vote. I can’t keep any local pop station on for more than 5 minutes before some auto-tuned, gimmick sound, gimmick rhythmed song comes on and shits all over my eardrums. > > [And get off my lawn!](http://5secondfilms.com/watch/old-man-petersons-lawn) So songs like [Niggas in Paris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggas_in_Paris) by Jay-Z don’t do it for you?