What is your favourite year in music and what age were you in that year?

The 1971 thread got me thinking reading the personal memories associated with the albums mentioned.

Obviously age has an effect on what year is classed as your favourite - as you have to remember it. Also there doesn’t seem to be too many people who class a favourite year outside of 12-? (21,25?).

I’d probably have to pick 1979 (but 78-81 is the period, so 79 probably as the best of this era) . I was 14.

So as per the title, what’s your favourite year in music and what age were you in that year?

.sjb

I can’t pick a single year! 1969 to maybe 1974 I guess almost equally. 1971 is at least as good as any in that range! Another burst early 1980s.

Maybe a related question of value is: and how old were you that year?

My 17 birthday was in 1971, so 17 for that year, and 16 to 21 for the above main range.

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Am I (or are you) misunderstanding something here?

.sjb

Sorry, I clearly didn’t finish reading!

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72, I was 17 and feral. The likes Bowie, Lou Reed and Pink Floyd were my soundtrack.

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It is an interesting question and one I have often pondered when I have read various posts. In 1969 I was thirteen and was ‘sent’ to boarding school. The following years to 1975 were my ‘plastic and impressionable’ years as Conrad called them. Although I had been brought up with music, it was then, in a closed and distant place (somewhere deep in the wilds of Scotland), that we all found music a constant. Apart from Luxembourg 208 or AFR and later Radio 1 if we could receive it, we would all return from holidays or half terms with our different records, all to be played and played in our common rooms and later in our own rooms. Like Pete, those were our soundtrack along with AHB, Jethro Tull, ELP, Elton John, Yes, Black Sabbath, Cat Stevens etc. And while I find and listen to lots of new music (to me!), these records remain the cornerstones of my record collection and listening.

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For me it would have to be 1977. I was 14, and was just discovering music. I saw Yes sing Wonderous Stories on Top of the Pops, and it blew my mind. I got a copy of Going For The One for Christmas. My first record, and I still have it.

A time of great change, in music and elsewhere. Prog and disco reaching their final peak, punk and new wave emerging, the 80s just around the corner, etc.

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Interesting correlation of age to year. I was 12 in 1985 watching live aid on the telly. Then spent the next couple of years furiously collecting and listening as much as I could. Whilst wishing I had been born a decade or two back so I could have been more involved. Which is a bit silly.
Being 17 in 1990. WelI I think like in any time, you can always find something great that’s contemporary if you look hard enough. You think your on the cutting edge until a mate comes round with an album from a band that you’ve never heard before that blows everything out the window.
Being 27 in 2000. This was a great year. One or two either way for a particular type of music.

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I do not really have a favourite year in music, there have been many years that I would say were good. I do remember buying my first records in 1969 which makes that year personally memorable, getting my first system in 74 which meant I didn’t have to fight for access to my dad’s system, equally memorbable. There were plenty of 2020 releases that I bought and am enjoying and thanks to the pandemic I have had plenty of time to listen to these and older music which is an unexpected silver lining to the last 12 months.

My years were 69 to late 70s. In 69 I was 13, and bought my first “proper” album Abbey Rd, which I still have. A pal was 2 years older and got me into all sorts…Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Van Morrison, Family, Allmans , CSNY, Yes, Genesis and many more. We went to lots of gigs, including The Great Western Express festival in Lincolnshire 1972 were we saw some amazing acts, one of the standouts was Slade who blew away The Faces!!. I met Dave Hill at a merchant trade counter many years later and he spoke of it as a gig that opened them to a wider rock audience. All the fond memories of simpler times and great music. Favourite year is difficult to define but 71 has to be one of the best.

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Almost identical to myself IB. I might go 68 to 74 for a range of years, but 1971 when I was also 17 is probably my No1 year for influential music. I still play lots of tracks from this period/year (although streaming has significantly broadened my listening in the last couple of years and brought me into the 21sr century!!)

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1967 I was 14 going on 15. It seemed as though magic poured through the radio every day.

Plus the odd Engelbert, Vikki Carr et al.

1977 was runner up.

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1828 (or maybe 1827). Schubert’s final years.

Age -124.

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Reading between the lines here, but it sounds like you didn’t like it very much?

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  1. I was 15.

1970 and 1972 were almost as good.

I agree that Slade were a killer live band.

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As far as music that was very much a product of its time is concerned, 1986-88 (or possibly 89 at a push). I was 12-14, after which pop/chart music and I pretty much parted brass rags.

Failing that, 1958-62 in jazz (and embryonic rock n roll) is tough to beat. Interestingly, that was 12-14 years before I was born.

Mark

Do you have to be so rude and negative all the time?

I could say that the Smiths is just a load of whiny, maudlin, self-pitying claptrap voiced by an absolute monster. Or, realizing that I have nothing to contribute to the debate, I could just maintain a diplomatic silence and leave the enthusiasts to talk among themselves.

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There’s no wrong and right in music.

We all have different tastes.

Then there’s context, songs that bring back memories, songs that are the closest we’ll ever get to being in the Tardus.

Let’s argue about cables, routers and the etching effect of second degree cardamon filters but not music. Let’s celebrate music and our love for it.

.sjb

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There are some contributors who seem incapable of keeping their critical opinions to themselves, whether it’s in respect of musical genres, choices of equipment, hifi racks, etc. Such people will never change. Best thing is to ignore them.

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I wasn’t picking on anybody, just trying to promote some peace love and understanding.

Being 14 in my chosen year 1979 I didn’t buy many albums. It’s one of my bigger regrets that the singles I owned seemed to disappear. There were a few years I had no TT and probably didn’t bring my singles with me from my parents home when I got married in 1992. (Another good musical era 91-93). My parents through out nothing so I’ve no idea where they went to. That yellow vinyl banana split song!

.sjb