Seriously? Where is the option for “kill me now”? I listen to music ranging all the way from when my parents were teens to what the kids are listening to nowadays. I couldn’t limit myself.
It has to be 1999 because 3 of my top 5 favorite albums were released that year of which, interestingly enough, I had one that year and didn’t discover the others for a few years later. And aside from those three, several other bands had among their best works in the same year.
Anathema - Judgement
Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black
Opeth - Still Life
Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory
Iced Earth - Alive in Athens
In Flames - Colony
Samael - Eternal
Amorphis - Tuonela
Agalloch - Pale Folklore
My Dying Bride - The Light at the End of the World
Katatonia - Tonight’s Decision
…
The list goes on, but I don’t need to list it all. Several of those albums I could listen to on repeat all day, so having all of them would just be awesome.
Second Place is probably 2002, which I could also easily live with:
Blind Guardian - A Night at the Opera
Nightwish - Century Child
Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness
Into Eternity - Dead or Dreaming
Opeth - Deliverence
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
Meshuggah - Nothing
Rhapsody - Power of the Dragonflame
Bloodbath - Resurrection through Carnage
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turblence
Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors
…
And then 2005 which does have my all time favorite album, which I could probably just leave on repeat forever, and has several other masterpieces, it doesn’t quite have enough to trump either the heavily top weighted 1999 or the overall awesomeness of 2002.
Dark Suns - Existence
Ulver - Blood Inside
Meshuggah - Catch Thirty-Three
Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Swallow the Sun - Ghosts of Loss
Spock’s Beard - Octane
Antimatter - Planetary Confinement
Dream Theater - Octavarium
Novembers Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure
The Old Dead Tree - The Perpetual Motion
Antestor - The Forsaken
Wow, you know, after listing out all these all the awesome albums from these 3 years, it’s actually much closer than I’d have thought. Now I’m not so sure, but I already voted so… meh.
I’m with you on this one. Oddly enough you missed some of my faves:
The Crow Soundtrack
STP - Purple
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
I think most of my music collection IS 1994 
I do miss Ben Folds Five and the Squirrel Nut Zippers but I will live.
Can I convince them to make me deaf to all music after 1972 instead?
I voted 1984, but actually, I think I’ll go with '85 (then '84, then '79, then '66, then '87). '85 has some of my favorite albums:
Husker Du - New Day Rising & Flip Your Wig
The Replacements - Tim
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Fegmania! & Gotta Let This Hen Out!
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
New Order - Low-Life
The Fall - This Nation’s Saving Grace
The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction
The Cure - The Head on the Door
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising
Camper Van Beethoven - Telephone Free Landslide Victory
Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
Butthole Surfers - Psychic…Powerless…Another Man’s Sac
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85
The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in My Backyard
Talking Heads - Little Creatures
The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
The Dukes of Stratosphear - 25 O’Clock
Billy Bragg - Between The Wars
Reading it wrong; say you wanted to include Ruby Tuesday by the Stones - although it was recorded in 1966, it was released in 1967, so you’d pick the latter year. If you picked 1968 or later, well the song wasn’t released then so you’re out of luck.
Compilations are out unless the songs included on it were from the year you picked. If you pick 1996 because you fancy having The Very Best of The Who and cheating the system, since none of the songs on it were released in 1996 you’re SOL. In fact, since you cheated the aliens will make every track that would otherwise be static sound just like Friday by Rebecca Black. Serves you right for trying to be crafty!
Excellent poll idea. If you were asking for the best year in music, I’d be pretty torn. But this poll was easy for me - I looked up when Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was released, and picked that year: 1998. I simply couldn’t go a year without listening to this album. And I figure that there would be enough interesting music to keep me occupied if I want to listen to something else.
And I guess I’m right - it’s not a lot, but it’s enough to see me through:
Pearl Jam - Yield
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Beck - Mutations
Plus, there were a bunch of other albums released that year that I’m sure I could find some nuggets on.
1973 wasn’t bad: Dark Side Of The Moon, Quadrophenia, Queen, Who Do We Think We Are, Houses of The Holy, Greetings From Asbury Park, Aerosmith, Tyranny and Mutation, Raw Power, Tres Hombres, Brain Salad Surgery, Montrose, Abandoned Luncheonette, Band on the Run, Tattoo…
‘This’ year.
1994 is a tempting choice for me, too: along with ZipperJJ’s choices and these:
Pulp - His ‘n’ Hers
Massive Attack - Protection
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Sugar - File Under: Easy Listening
…1994 was a pretty good year. And I was not in high school, actually. 1995 was good too, at least at the very top of Britpop:
Maxinquaye - Tricky
(What’s The Story) Morning Glory - Oasis
It’s Great When You’re Straight..Yeah! - Black Grape
The Bends - Radiohead
Grand Prix - Teenage Fanclub
I Should Coco - Supergrass
Different Class - Pulp
To Bring You My Love - Pj Harvey
The Great Escape - Blur
Kind of hard for Britpop to top that, really.
Pearl Jam - Ten
Nirvana - Nevermind
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Digital Underground - This is an EP Release
Digital Underground - Sons of the P
Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
Living Colour - Biscuits
Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Superstition
Fishbone - The Reality of My Surroundings
Infectious Grooves - The Plague that Makes Your Booty Move
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Big Audio Dynamite - The Globe
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Pitch Shifter - Industrial
A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
Temple of the Dog
De La Soul - De La Soul is Dead
Queen - Innuendo
3rd Bass - Derelicts of Dialect
Violent Femmes - Why Do Birds Sing?
Prince - Diamonds and Pearls
Operation Ivy
NOFX - Ribbed
Screaming Trees - Uncle Anesthesia
L7 - Smell the Magic
Mudhoney - Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
Green Day - 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours
Divinyls
The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Orbital
Bad Religion - 80-85
Pop Will Eat Itself - Cure for Sanity
Mr. Bungle
The Shamen - En-Tact
Pixies - Trompe le Monde
The Cult - Ceremony
Pennywise
Dramarama - Vinyl
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie - Hammer and Tongs
Del tha Funkee Homosapien - I Wish My Brother George Was Here
Alice in Chains - Man in the Box single
Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod single
Am I the only one here who thinks that most modern music is crap? My choice for the best year would be 1853, when Franz Liszt wrote the bulk of his Hungarian Rhapsodies. So there!
I like 80’s music the best, I have no idea when songs came out, so I picked the year I graduated from college. 1983.
I can’t believe I forgot His ‘n’ Hers.
Now that I think about it, I’m torn between 1994 and 1997.
1997:
Radiohead - OK Computer
Pulp - This is Hardcore
Blur - Blur
Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
Portishead - Portishead
Bjork - Homogenic
Depeche Mode - Ultra
Elliott Smith - Either/Or
Nick Cave - The Boatman’s Call
The Prodigy - Fat of the Land
Deftones - Around the Fur
Travis - Good Feeling
Whatever it is, I’m stuck in the 90s.
1961 – I knew a couple of my all-time favorites were from 1961, but looking at a top 100 list gave me a whole bunch more.
I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline
Del Shannon’s Runaway
Crying and Running Scared from Roy Orbison
Will You Love Me Tomorrow by the Shirelles
My favorite from Marty Robbins – Don’t Worry
Shop Around by the Miracles
Apache - Jorgen Ingmann’s version
Stand by Me and Spanish Harlem - Ben E. King
*Hello Walls * from Faron Young and Are You Lonesome Tonight from Elvis
Good times.
I chose 1982, if only for
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel IV (aka Security)
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
Nina Hagen - Nunsexmonkrock
I choose 1972, coincidentally also the year of my birth, but also the year that many of my favorite (prog rock, folk, etc) bands released awesome albums.
1980
Rush released *Permanent Waves *and recorded Moving Pictures
Yes released Drama
**Van Halen **release Women and Children First
So far, 1966-1972 is clearly the most popular. There is a smaller bump from 1978-1984 with a donut hole in 1981, the year of MTV’s debut, when the remnants of disco were being stamped out for good.
This was my vote also. I’d add U2’s The Joshua Tree and The 77’s The 77’s. Plus Paul Simon’s Graceland, though released in '86, was still getting major airplay if I can count that.