Heydays – The Greatest Decades in Rock and Metal History

The eternal debate among rock and metal aficionados is one of when. One man’s golden era is another man’s trash, or words to that effect, so differentiating between the many different stages of rock and metal history without succumbing to rose-tinted bias and well-intentioned snark is a hard job. Thankfully, we here at Rock Song of the Week are experts in both old things and snark, so we’ve put together a cheeky little list of the best decades that rock and metal had to offer us. Apologies if we don’t mention your favourite band, but feel free to let us know on Facebook who we missed! Fiery comments incoming in 3, 2, 1…

3. 1990s

While the 1980s had flair, hair, and synths to spare in its mission to captivate the masses, the 1990s tends to go under the cultural radar musically at times. We all know the heavy hitters that changed the landscape; Nirvana and Pearl Jam took from what came before and created music that reflected the downturn in mood present in an entire era, while the perennial thoughtfulness of bands like Alice in Chains balanced the rage and with introspective beauty. 

But the 90s had so much to offer that wasn’t denim-clad doom and gloom. Bands in their heyday included Metallica, fresh off the back of the Black Album that would catapult them to international thrash stardom. R.E.M and Weezer held alt-rock hostage, while the Red Hot Chilli Peppers spawned a new wave of stylish funk rock and rampant shirtlessness. Meanwhile, across the pond, Oasis kickstarted a battle for control of the British charts with their charming brand of poppy-rock that lasted for a decade. The 80s may have had the style, if you like trousers you can see the veins in your legs through, anyway, but the 90s had the soul.

2. 1960s

If the 1950s heralded the invention of rock and roll and disapproving parents as a direct consequence, the 1960s was the decade where rock became impossible to ignore. Out of the haze of psychedelic smoke came the titans of as many genres as you can count before you run out of fingers. From the soul-changing riffs of Jimi Hendrix and his Experience to the world-altering popularity of the Beatles (and ongoing battle with the Rolling Stones for chart spots), the 1960s took the public by the scruff of the neck and insisted that the genre was here to stay. 

Pick your poison when it comes to genre and it’s likely that the best band to ever do it did it in the 1960s. Surf rock? The Beach Boys. Blues rock? Janis Joplin. Southern rock? The Allman Brothers. Proto-punk? Oh, look, it’s only The Who and the Kinks. The ongoing political and civil rights issues in the USA were a breeding ground of talent; the Vietnam War helped Creedance Clearwater Revival set up the entirety of their short career in a single year in 1969, while Bob Dylan provided protest anthems by the score. In a time of turmoil and change, the 1960s set rock down a path that could only feasibly be topped by one decade in particular. 

1. 1970s

Anything the swinging 60s could do, the 1970s tweaked, tuned and created fine art with. To list every single influential, timeless band that the 70s produced or perfected would take far more words than we have site bandwidth for, but check this for a laundry list. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple; the list goes on, and on, and on. The amount of musicians and bands that either sprung up or released their best work in the decade is astonishing, head and shoulders stuff that changed the face of music history forever. 

This is yet to even mention the key genre impacts that the 70s blessed us with. Black Sabbath inventing metal in 1970 with their self-titled opened the floodgates for, well, nearly every single metal band who have ever existed. The birth of punk rock proper saw anti-establishment anthems from The Clash and Buzzcocks become, ironically, household names. Progressive rock took a generation of stoners to new highs (womp, womp) through Rush, Yes and Kansas. Homer Simpson once said that rock attained perfection in 1974. He wasn’t far wrong. 

Article header photo by James Barbosa on Unsplash