What was the worst year for popular music?

Compared to the 8-9 years that followed it, 1973 pretty much rocked.

 

To clarify, my 1997 songs were the opposite ends of two extremes. The first craptastic, the second awesomeness.

 

While it was two years before my birth, 1973 seems incredibly solid. Houses of the Holy, Dark Side of the Moon, Lynyrd Skynyrd's debut album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder ... Love Train came out that year. Surely to God somebody's trolling with that comment.

Hell, No. 100 that year was Papa was a Rolling Stone. Put that one up against No. 100 from other years and see what you get.

Some of this stuff will stand up forever. Any year that produced my first two examples cannot be in this discussion.

 

Grantland analyzes data on classic rock radio.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-classic-rock-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/

 

If I was going to pick a year that was the worst for popular music, it would have to be a year that featured a lot of songs that haven't aged well, or a year in which a lot of artists simply lacked staying power.

On one hand, the No. 1 song in 1973 was Tie A Yellow Ribbon, and I don't think anyone who has commented on 1973 in this thread, would put that song on a pedestal.

On the other hand, there was plenty to like about what made the top 100 that year. Stevie Wonder had multiple big hits, ditto for Elton John. Gladys Knight and the Pips had some good material. Jim Croce did had the second most-popular single that year, and while it may not have been his best, who knows how many people may have discovered some of his better songs (or maybe I just like Jim Croce a lot, YMMV).

I'd nominate 1997. I actually liked some of Mariah Carey's material, but "One Sweet Day" was awful and that was the No. 2 single of the year for some reason. It was also the year when Whitney Houston definitely jumped the shark (seriously, "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)"?). It also gave us one of the most pointless songs of all time, "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Oh, and for some reason, Kris Kross was still around.

I'll let everyone decide whether a certain dance craze that took over the United States that year was a good thing or not.

(For the record, there is plenty of 1997 material that I liked, but what was most popular certainly wasn't what I would call "the classics.")

 

That's pretty interesting.

It bugs me that Motley Crue is considered classic rock, but it gets played on the Alice Cooper syndicated show a lot, along with Ratt and a bunch of other schlock.
I was a kid when that stuff was at it's most popular, and I hated it then, too.

It doesn't surprise me that U2 or Nirvana are considered classic rock now.
I can even understand including Pearl Jam, although that's another band for whom I have no use.

It kind of bugs me that Bryan Adams is anything more than a classic rock novelty, like Herman's Hermits or the Lemon Pipers.

 

That Cincinnati plays Bryan Adams more than anyone goes a long way toward explaining its love that of that crap they call chili.

 

Accountability: This piece is from 538, not Grantland.

 

You are correct. My bad. Sorry.

 

The 1990s. Yeah, I know you said 'year.' It's a tie.

 

I'd vote for any year between 1988-90. Horrid.

I'll also say this as an increasingly grizzled old fart ... I think pop music (to which I'm primarily exposed via my kids) is not bad at all right now. Its been a lot worse.

 

Saw Bryan Adams in concert last year on his Bare Bones tour. He was great. It was amazing, too, to realize how many hits or at least recognizable songs he's had in his career. In his two-hour set there might have been two songs I didn't know, and I'm not exactly a hardcore Bryan Adams fan.