The 1960's is the coolest decade in the history of mankind. It would eat the 1970's and the 1990's for the same breakfast and then ask what's for brunch.
^And the 1970's was the hangover from the 1960's. See, any decade that results in a two-decade hangover....
That's why I didn't mention the 60s. Although I'm not a fan of the early 60s (with a few exceptions). I could say the same about the 50s.
I loved the 80s and the late 70s. Great time to be alive and listen to music. met some of my closest friends then and we bonded over music, films, books and art. Fell in and out of love a few times with a soundtrack provided by The Clash, The Jam, the Go Gos, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, U2, REM, the B-52, the Police... (well you get the idea )
A-fucking-men I HATE that song, and Starship in general, Jefferson Airplane were awesome, Jefferson Starship were as well (well, judging by the Hugo-Winning "Blows Against The Empire") but then they turned into Starship and the rock died.
At the turn, the Jefferson Starship was OK. The album Blows Against The Empire, a Paul Kantner sci-fi epic, is quite good. The first Starship ballad, Marty Balin's Caroline, was a terrific song. But then came Red Octopus and Marty totally wimped out with Miracles, and it was all shee-rote. Or maybe that's all shee-it.
The 1980's, OTOH...as somebody who was a teenager in the 80's, I have that decade's music to thank for the fact that I'm a Beatles fan.
What Nerys Myk said upthread bears repeating. The late '70s and early '80s were great musically. Rock was in one of its reinvention phases. Punk was king and New Wave was, well, new. I loved that period. Before that, I was totally bored with rock 'n' roll and had basically given up. I was listening to acoustic music like The David Grisman Quintet. Then I heard The Police and The Clash. What the fuck is this? My world was changed. I cut my hair very short, started wearing white shirts and thin black ties and learned to pogo. The late '70s/early '80s were a great time to be a rock fan.
Ummm... all of them. That's like asking "what is the worst hip hop song about butts?" But these says we have it so much better. We have Kid Rock! Who not only sings about Rock, but has Rock in his name! He's so rockin'!
Much better than the mid-to-late-'80s, when the decade had found its own identity. As Alidar had suggested with the '60s, in their first few years decades tend to bear more resemblance to the preceding decade than the one to come. For me, not just in music but in pretty much all areas of popular culture--with a few exceptions like TNG--starting around 1984 the decade was chock full of unbridled suck. And back on the original topic--has the thread really gotten to three pages without anybody mentioning "Rock Me" by ABBA...?