Best Decade for Pazz/Jop ? ? ?

oops. forgot about the character limits. well, here's the full list:

1970s: The Who, "Who's Next"; Joni Mitchell, "Court & Spark"; Bob Dylan and the Band, "The Basement Tapes"; Stevie Wonder, "Songs in the Key of Life"; Sex Pistols, "Never Mind the Bollocks"; Elvis Costello, "This Year's Mode"; Graham Parker, "Squeezing Out Sparks"

1980s: The Clash, "London Calling"; The Clash, "Sandinista!"; Elvis Costello, "Imperial Bedroom"; Michael Jackson, "Thriller"; Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the U.S.A."; Talking Heads, "Little Creatures"; Paul Simon, "Graceland"; Prince, "Sign O' the Times"; Public Enemy, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back"; De La Soul, "3 Feet High and Rising"

1990s: Neil Young, "Ragged Glory"; Nirvana, "Nevermind"; Arrested Development, "3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of..."; Liz Phair, "Exile in Guyville"; Hole, "Live Through This"; PJ Harvey, "To Bring You My Love"; Beck, "Odelay"; Bob Dylan, "Time Out of Mind"; Lucinda Williams, "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road"; Moby, "Play"

2000s: OutKast, "Stankonia"; Bob Dylan, "Love and Theft"; Wilco, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"; OutKast, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"; Kanye West, "The College Dropout"; Kanye West, "Late Registration"; Bob Dylan, "Modern Times"; LCD Soundsystem, "The Sound of Silver"; TV on the Radio, "Dear Science"; Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

So are we voting on best decade for list-toppers, or are you just posting the #1s to be emblematic of the lists as a whole?

somewhat inspired by the tori amos thread, thinking about how many women finished #1 in the '90s vs. any other decade. other obvious stats: 4 nonwhite top finishers in the '80s and 5 in the '00s (counting TVOTR), vs. 1 each in the '70s and '90s. dylan has had a #1 in every decade but the '80s (empire burlesque wuz robbed!). multiple winners: dylan, costello, clash, outkast, kanye.

xpost: just the best collection of #1s.

kinda depressing how the decade w/ the most multiple winners was the '00s, the decade with the largest variety of possible options.

first instinct was '70s, but I'm voting for '80s despite a couple dogs that squeaked by on career momentum and critical goodwill, because it most fits the balance of populist zeitgeist and old fashioned crit favoritism that i think is my ideal for P&J

Imperial Bedroom and Little Creatures aside (and I like LC more than most people), the eighties.

kinda depressing how the decade w/ the most multiple winners was the '00s, the decade with the largest variety of possible options.

i know, that really jumps out. the only other place it happens at all is the back-to-back clash wins.

i agree on the '80s too. maybe this'll be no real contest.

'80s cuz that's when I read it most.

and theoretically the outkast/kanye wins make the '00s one of the most pop-friendly lists, but somehow it doesn't actually feel that way.

The nineties aren't bad at all, even with that excrescence winning in '93.

that liz-hole-pj run just really leaps out, even more in retrospect than at the time (since there's only been one woman winner since). like pazz/jop fell in love, moved in together, then broke up and moved back into its mom's basement.

Joni's really the only woman winner before that, too

Voting for the '80s, just slightly over the '70s, but judging Pazz & Jop on just the winners (as opposed to, say, the entire album and singles lists) is silly. (I still might vote for the '80s with those, though.)

Well, only guys care about polls, etc.

Whether listeners suddenly got a spate of good music in which disco, R&B, L.A. studio-rock, and AOR converged in fascinating ways or voters were simply more receptive to such a convergence, the singles lists of the eighties – especially the early eighties – makes what came afterwards look pretty pale. We've discussed it on the corresponding P&J thread.

*make

kinda depressing how the decade w/ the most multiple winners was the '00s, the decade with the largest variety of possible options.

― some dude, Wednesday, January 27, 2010 9:19 AM (25 minutes ago)

what's depressing is an artist who was relevant in like the 50s winning twice

It's not Andre 3000 and Big Boi's fault that they only wrote about Rosa Parks instead of meeting her.

haha

t judging Pazz & Jop on just the winners (as opposed to, say, the entire album and singles lists) is silly

well sure. but it still says something about the way the distilled consensus has shifted -- or, more obviously, hasn't shifted.

I haven't heard those Dylan albums but they're definitely among the least objectionable '00s winners afaic

voting 70s

ditto

2 dylans and stankonia are definitely my favorites of the '00s winners.

Choosing the 70s because the early 80s (which was otherwise the best time for music) seems to be represented by the wrong titles all the way here. Surely "Imperial Bedroom" is a great album, but "Rio" is much more representative for 1982, and I would also much rather have seen "Dare" or "Tin Drum" for 1981. The poll is missing one entire genre, which is one of the best genres ever.
"London Calling" is also not from 1980, but OK, it was in the US.

The 70s are also completely missing out on prog, but at least Stevie Wonder's in there with one of his best albums. And the Costello one is not at all bad either.

I vote for the '70s because...I'm an old guy whose frame of reference for everything is the '70s. They had the best music, the best movies, the best evil presidents, the best hair, the best Pazz & Jops, the best everything. If you did a poll on the best decade for HB pencils, I'd vote for the '70s. It's what I do.

Best hair?

Absolutely! I'll start with me--mine was fabulous, and now most of it's gone. Oscar Gamble, Riot-era Sly Stone, Julie Christie, Shaggy (the Scooby-Doo guy, the real Shaggy), John Cazale in Dog Day Afternoon, etc., etc. We had a profound respect for big, garish hair back then.

The poll is missing one entire genre, which is one of the best genres ever.

OK, I'll bite. New wave? Synth pop?

Acoustic, real music.

I finally figured out who clemenza is.

it's missing progressive modern pazz

80s. easily, too.

Yeah, '80s without a second thought.

The nineties aren't bad at all, even with that excrescence winning in '93.

Liz Phair, or do you mean '92, Arrested Development?

1980s>1970s>>>2000s>>>>>>1990s

70s is the only decade i can easily discount. it might be the 00s for me, actually.

xxp was wondering that myself

80s > 00s > 70s > 90s

I voted 00's, but I already regret it. Should've voted 80's.

rev was gonna post my post basically

kind of having a hard time fathoming anything on the 00s list being better than the superior half of the 70s list

OutKast, "Stankonia"

80s.

another trend: englishness! or the lack of it. '70s are british 4 out of 7, and there's a streak of 6 straight u.k. winners from '77-'82. but since then, only pj harvey.

kind of having a hard time fathoming anything on the 00s list being better than the superior half of the 70s list

i know mine is the overwhelmingly unpopular view, but i feel just the opposite of you.

80s > 70s > 00s > 90s

but the 90s are hard to reevaluate right now. It'll be fun to see Odelay get reevaluated...or is it a case of an album whose idiosyncrasies have already been fully mined by newer artists?

Odelay is the only album I care about in the 90s list

80s>00s>>>>>>>>stevie&bob>>90s

90s list just bizarre

not down on Odelay, just interested in seeing its reevaluation b/c the message at the time was all "it's so innovative!" not "this has classic tunes" and I'd like to see more evaluating the latter now (b/c I like suggestions for what to listen for, not b/c I think it doesn't hold up)

The 90's list has arguably the most variety of sounds/genres ... plus, no repeat winners. Those are two big plusses, IMO.

But whatever, I'm just searching for reasons to not vote for the 80's ...

(i.e. because the 80's look like the obvious choice and I'm wondering if I can possibly justify voting for something else)

The 90's list has arguably the most variety of sounds/genres ...

1 rap album, 1 electronic album and 8 rock albums doesn't sound that varied to me. The 80s looks much better in that regard, plus SOTT is the only one of these I really really love, so gotta go for 80s.

the 80s list has a very high % of #1s that would probably still be #1 if P&J-esque critics voted today. prob not sandinista, def not little creatures, prob not costello. but the rest would be favorites, maybe bruce and de la soul placing 2nd or 3rd, but no lower.

otoh on the 70s and 90s lists, the only things that would be sure #1s are nirvana, sex pistols and stevie wonder. the 70s/90s lists look 'dated' in a way that the 80s list doesn't.

Leaving out albums I don't care about or haven't heard, the 90s wins it for me:

1970s:
Bob Dylan and the Band, "The Basement Tapes";
Stevie Wonder, "Songs in the Key of Life";

1980s:
Michael Jackson, "Thriller";
Paul Simon, "Graceland";
Prince, "Sign O' the Times";

1990s:
Neil Young, "Ragged Glory";
Nirvana, "Nevermind";
Liz Phair, "Exile in Guyville";
Hole, "Live Through This";
PJ Harvey, "To Bring You My Love";

2000s:
OutKast, "Stankonia";
OutKast, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below";
LCD Soundsystem, "The Sound of Silver";

lol something bad happened to you in the 90s man

do you not care about Public Enemy, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back"; De La Soul, "3 Feet High and Rising"?

do people listen to the sex pistols record all the way through? i appreciate it's a big record but beyond the singles are there really deep cuts on a sex pistols record?

I liked them when they came out, but wouldn't put them on today.

Sex Pistols album is my favorite album up there, fwiw. (Also prefer my least favorite P&J-winning '70s album to my most favorite '00s one. And I don't care about De La Soul myself, but voted for the '80s anyway.)

70s wins with the handicap.

My version:
70s: Funhouse, There's a Riot, Exile on Main St, Funky Kingston, Flesh of My Skin, Blood of My Blood, Another Green World, Super Ape, Heart of the Congo, Germ-Free Adolescents, Singles Going Steady

80s: Remain in Light, Youth of America, You Can't Hide Your Love Forever, Murmur, Zen Arcade, Rain Dogs, Reign In Blood, Sister, Daydream Nation, Paul's Boutique

90s: Fear of a Black Planet, Spiderland, Bone Machine, The Black Rider, DI Go Pop, Maxinquaye, Endtroducing, Homogenic, Noon Chill, 69 Love Songs

00s: Kid A, Vespertine, Songs for the Deaf, Fever To Tell, Desperate Youth, Ghost Reveries, Return to Cookie, Untrue, Dear Science, Waiting For You

1980s

not down on Odelay, just interested in seeing its reevaluation b/c the message at the time was all "it's so innovative!" not "this has classic tunes" and I'd like to see more evaluating the latter now (b/c I like suggestions for what to listen for, not b/c I think it doesn't hold up)

― Euler, Thursday, January 28, 2010 2:26 AM Bookmark

Odelay has (some) classic tunes

1 rap album, 1 electronic album and 8 rock albums doesn't sound that varied to me. The 80s looks much better in that regard, plus SOTT is the only one of these I really really love, so gotta go for 80s.

Looking at what people really did listen to, I would say guitar bands are more overrepresented in the 80s list than the 90s list. The 80s weren't really about guitar bands at all, apart from a few underground listeners that didn't like synthpop. The 90s, however, had a very strong guitar based scene from grunge through Britpop.

And the 80s were also better for black music. Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, DeBarge, Billy Ocean, Five Star, Imagination. SO much better than hip-hop!

xpost, yeah "1 rap album, 1 electronic album and 8 rock albums" is a really simplistic breakdown, unless you really feel that PJ Harvey, Beck, Dylan, and Lucinda Williams can all be accurately lumped together under "rock". If you subtract "Thriller", I see a lot less variety in the 1980-1986 winners than in the 1995-1999 run (add "Play" to the four '90's albums I just listed).

Besides the Moby (LOL) choice and Arrested Development, the 90's picks aren't bad at all.

Actually Time Out Of Mind is really boring.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Daaaa-yum.

we r old and cranky.

me and three other malcontents got shouted down. my no. 2 choice was the 80s, tho.

'90s would be my no. 2.