Rank The Decades

Lmao, you're such a jokester.

I just made a Reddit post on this and was reminded of this post and also took inspiration from it, so I’ll share mine here.

1 2000’s~ I might be biased for this one considering most of my childhood was in the 00’s but now 00’s music, movies and even fashion is nostalgic for me even though most 00’s fashion was pretty terrible

2 1990’s~ I love 90’s music, movies and even fashion and aesthetic. It would probably be first if it weren’t for my bias remembering about of half the 00’s as a kid. Though other people’s overwhelming love for the 90’s does kind of turn me off of it and make me want to dislike them sometimes

3 2010’s~ Early 2010’s had some good pop music, but there was also a lot of music I found to be pretty bad during this decade and didn’t seem to have much variety as previous one’s, especially lacking in rock music which is my favorite genre. I like 2010’s fashion, you can find almost anything you want with the variety of social media platforms, and streaming took off in this decade which I like. The 2010’s were mostly my teen years.

4 1980’s~ People might hate me, but I honestly find the 80’s to be pretty overrated in everything but the music, I think fashion was also the worst in this decade besides the 70’s. I also find the 80’s to be really cheesy in a way that I don’t enjoy. The 80’s are okay, but ehh...

5 1970’s~ Some good rock music, but as far as anything else goes bleh...

1. 1990s - I love how much innovation there was in this decade, and how kinda revolutionary it was. Rock went from all rockstar-oriented and shallow to deep, introspective, and somewhat experimental. Rap became a popular and critically appreciated genre of music, whilst also heavily diversifying in this decade. EDM absolutely EXPLODED in popularity. Animation not only got so much better, but also became acceptable for adults to like as well. Independent films were able to see success, like Pulp Fiction and Clerks. Video games COMPLETELY changed from simplistic platformers, shoot em ups, and beat em ups at the start of the decade to varied, rich, and heavily diverse experiences by the end. Lastly, the internet allowed for content of all sorts to become popular. Of course, this predates Web 2.0, but it was still a huge deal. My only problem is that in the late 90s, teen pop was a bit TOO dominant over music, and movies shifted towards sci-fi stuff that always had to do with disasters and aliens, not to mention having TONS of CGI that hasn't aged well, but even still, the late 90s also had the rise of the internet and fantastic EDM, so I can't hate on it.
2. 1970s - The decade modern Hollywood was born, and also hip-hop and EDM if you trace it all the way back. Of course, the 70s was IMO the absolute BEST decade for rock. It was so diverse, and also often quite experimental and complex, especially progressive rock, one of my favorite genres of music in general. But there was also punk, glam rock, post-punk, southern rock, traditional metal, hard rock. It was fantastic. And that's not even mentioning soul, funk, or disco, all of which were also popular in the 70s. Movies basically modernized in the 70s. Horror, sci-fi, action, AND comedy as we know them today were all really perfected in this decade. There's like 10 classics in each genre. Films were able to take advantage of the Hays Code no longer being a thing. The commercial video game industry was born in this decade. TV shows went from the cheesy wholesome bullshit of the 50s and 60s, to more serious, topical, and darker shows like All In The Family and MASH. Of course, video games would get so much better in later decades, and the 90s is my personal favorite decade for both music and video games, but I still cannot deny the influence the 70s had over modern pop culture. I do really like how media was able to be much darker and explore more serious issues in this decade compared to previous ones.
3. 2000s - This decade is my personal favorite for TV, especially cartoons. Surreal comedies like Aqua Teen Hunger Force and 12 oz mouse rose to prominence in this decade, plus non-laugh track sitcoms like The Office, the latter, as well as Curb Your Enthusiasm really perfecting cringe comedy in my opinion. Animation already began pushing the envelope in the 90s, but it really peaked in this decade with shows like Drawn Together, Family Guy, and peak-era South Park. There were even fourth-wall breaking shows like the aforementioned Drawn Together and Chowder. For music, I'm not a fan of how EDM basically disappeared off the map in this decade, but on the bright side, I actually like this decade for rock. The 00s get a bad rap because of same-ish sounding post-grunge and garage rock bands, but this rock should also deserve attention for nu metal, pop punk, post-britpop, post-hardcore, metalcore, dance punk, and yes, I'll admit, I also like emo music, especially stuff like My Chemical Romance and Panic! At the Disco that has a more glam-ish theatrical experimental vibe to them. HOWEVER, I think rap greatly declined in quality, especially with the rise of formulaic crunk and snap. Crunk can be good sometimes, but snap is one of my least favorite genres of music, period. Indie films were still receiving attention, quirky ones like Napoleon Dynamite and Juno, but also mainstream blockbusters. Unfortunately, too many sequels, and general lack of innovation prevent me from liking this decade too much for film. On the other hand, I really like video games from this decade, and it's my second favorite for video games behind the 90s. Graphics are way better than the 90s, but you also don't get annoying DLC. Some fantastic game series from the early 00s, like Halo, Grand Theft Auto (started in the 90s but really defined itself in the 2000s), Devil May Cry, and Kingdom Hearts, plus new installments like Half-Life 2 and Final Fantasy X that significantly expanded on their franchises. The late 2000s admittedly has too many "real is brown" military shooters for my taste but there are some great games here like Team Fortress 2, Mirror's Edge, and Super Mario Galaxy, plus the 7th gen of consoles were actually incredibly innovative, as they felt more like entertainment devices now rather than just game consoles.
4. 2010s - So far, this decade has defined itself with saccharine pop (think Pharrell Williams and LMFAO) for the first half, but, around 2017, got more experimental with the rise of emo rap and bedroom pop, once again exploring darker emotions. However, with some exceptions like Inception, movies got even worse than they were in the 2000s, with tons of shitty live-action Disney remakes and the same superhero flicks dominating. I know for the latter, there's people who love these movies, and so they might rank the 2010s higher, but the 2010s just don't seem very diverse for film. Even animated films seem more formulaic compared to the more subversive and experimental 2000s. The 2010s had some fantastic video games like GTA V and Minecraft, but unfortunately, the decade is just as content to shower itself in microtransactions, DLC, and lootboxes, than it would to create competent, functioning games. On the bright side, indie games have thrived in the 2010s like never before, such as FNAF and Undertale. TV however is great in this decade - Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty. Maybe it's not the 2000s level of greatness, but it's still a really good decade for TV. Overall, many aspects seem like a downgrade compared to the 2000s, especially with the influence of woke culture. TV is still thriving however, and there are still great video games, so it's not the WORST cultural decade. Hell, I like a lot of the EDM out there, so there's that.
5. 1980s - There's some things I like, and some things I dislike, about the 80s. What I like? I like a lot of the music, but it's not as diverse as the 70s in my opinion. Rap and EDM wouldn't truly explode until the next decade, although important groundwork was laid in the 80s, with the first gangsta rap songs and albums coming out in the late 80s by Schooly D and NWA. Rock got much heavier with the rise of new metal genres like NWOBHM, thrash metal, and hair metal, the latter became HUGE in this decade. Punk rock also became heavier, but also more underground with the rise of hardcore punk. Unfortunately, MAINSTREAM rock became more formulaic, as it mostly turned into arena rock and hair metal. Some of it can be good, but it does get tiring after a while, and a lot of it does feel fake to me, maybe that's why grunge took off the way it did in the early 90s, it was the total antithesis to both hair metal and arena rock. However, the underground was producing great shit in both metal and punk, but it was much harder to discover in the pre-internet MTV era. Movies went from the high experimentation in the 70s to more blockbuster-oriented in the 80s. Action became more formulaic and cliché, comedies became dumber, and horror movies also became more formulaic. However, we did see the rise of teen films, and some of the best and most creative sci-fi films ever made, so this decade did have some great movies, even if a lot of them haven't aged well. Unfortunately, the TV shows mostly haven't aged well. I find a lot of them formulaic and bordering on unwatchable nowadays. Stuff like The Cosby Show in particular is uncomfortable given the man behind these shows and well, it's REALLY hard to separate the artist from the art in a show LITERALLY named after Bill Cosby. Cartoons are also hard to watch given how so many of them are about selling toys, and feel very same-ish as each other, not to mention how gendered they feel, like Transformers and GI Joe are about robots and soldiers so they're OBVIOUSLY for boys, and My Little Pony and Care Bears are about ponies and rainbows, so OF COURSE they're for girls. Seems kinda sexist IMO. Video games are a mixed bag, the first half literally ended in a crash, but the second half thankfully picked up the pieces, and helped invent modern gaming. Nintendo in particular, with games like Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid helped revitalize and innovate gaming. Too bad much of it was dominated by generic platformers and shitty licensed games by LJN. Overall, I like a lot about this decade, and gaming is better than the 70s (but not as good as the 2000s or ESPECIALLY 90s in my opinion), but TV, music, and movies feel like a downgrade from the 70s honestly, and in the 90s, they largely got better.
6. 1960s - Here's the thing, I think this decade was very important for pop culture, and I really like a lot of pop culture from this decade...at least, the second half. Late 60s is really what most people remember from the 60s, and when people talk about how great and revolutionary it was, they're talking about that part. And they're absolutely right: the music was completely changed with the advent of multi-track recording, as well as greater never-before-seen experimentation in music, movies were more experimental and going in new directions they've never gone in before, like The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde, which started the New Hollywood era. Mid-60s was alright, I like the merseybeat, folk rock, and mod scenes from this era, but it's still not on the same level as the late 60s. Early 60s was straight-up lame - rock n roll was dead, but the British Invasion didn't happen yet, so music was in a dire state, mainly bubblegum pop dominated this era, plus surf rock from about 1962 onwards. TV from this era is also hard to watch. It wasn't until the 70s that things would become darker and more serious, so many of the shows, like The Brady Bunch, are unbelievably saccharine and boring to me. Laugh-track family sitcoms just aren't my thing if they don't do anything to stand out, which is why I'm not a fan of most 50s and 60s television, although to me, it seemed even the 50s had more experimentation with shows like The Twilight Zone and all those live television programs. Same goes for pre-1967 movies. Alfred Hitchcock's prime was in the 50s and very early 60s, so between about 1961 to 1966, most movies just consisted of saccharine musicals. I mean, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music I know are masterpieces, but I'm into darker shit about depression and whatnot, they're not for me LMAO. IMO, if the ENTIRE decade was more like the late 60s, it could be higher on this list. As it stands, it was a very important decade for movies and music, but much of that innovation only happened in the second half, and the first half of the decade was kinda lame.