Hi all,

Every time a thread starts that decrees a given period (usually a decade, probably because it's convenient) as having given us the best or the worst music (currently there's one going strong slamming the 80s) two thoughts cross my mind. First and foremost, musical tastes are beyond arguments: you like what you like and that's it. The ancient Romans had the wisdom to encapsulate this in a pithy maxim: de gustibus est non disputandem = matters of taste are not disputable. I don't know that their music was any good, but at least they didn't argue about it ;-)

The second thought is what someone I know calls the "Dr. Who Affinity Test". It's simply this: when two Dr. Who fans meet and discuss their favorite incarnation ("Tom Baker? you must be joking. He's a waffling prat" "Oh yeah? John Pertwee was a ponce." "You take that back...") it invariably turns out that their favorite doctor was the first one they watched, the one who 'set the standard', as it were. I think the same thing is true in music. We love the music we listened to when we first fell in love with music. That simple.

The truth is that at any given time window (slight Time Lord reference inserted) there are really good bands coming on the scene, formerly really good bands selling out and succumbing to entropy, and a lot of forgettable music being churned out that is soon remaindered and never heard of again.

Right, now that's sorted out. As you were ;-)

Cheers,

d

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"Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones." - Dr. Walter Bishop, "Fringe"

yeah but I first started watching Tom Baker in 1976 but my favourite actor in the role is actually Patrick Troughton, so there.

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There's so much brilliant music it would be hard to pick a decade. Every decade would provide something for my desert island collection though there might be a few more from the 70s. There was such an explosion and diversity in that 70s decade.

Dunno why. That was my yoof and everyone was in a band - maybe that's why.

Favourite doctor? Karen Gillan

The 70s...when abundant musical genres combined with 2 inch tape and BOOOOM!!!!!

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My head hurts!

I liked the 70's also. For most things, but for jazz I prefer the 50's and 60's - that was when the recording quality was better (than the 40's) but there were still the real jazz cats alive- even if the music wasn't quite as popular after rock 'n' roll.

Bet even if we have different opinions about the best decade, most of us will vote the last ten years as the worst.

Tom Baker.
80's.

The first stuff i probably listened to was s club 7 or some junk.


My problem is that I'm from the nothing generation, we have no identity because the mass produced media labels were cut up hung drawn and quartered and you could listen to everything and everything and you had the entire planets music collection on your hard drive.

I like Led Zeppelin and Hendrix as much as i like the Beatles as much as i like Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana and Radiohead along with a whole bunch of modern pop, rock, hip hop and the odd film scores.

Many of my friends are the same, I guess the internet broke our generational identity. Unless our identity is that we don't have one......

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Almost all of what I seriously listen to at home is from the 70's, but it is music and a genre I didn't even know existed at the time.
(why do all the modern Dr.Who's have to end with an 8 minute overwrought emotional crisis?)

Junk that the last decade was the worst as well, Closure In Moscow, Mars Volta, Arctic Monkeys, Queens Of The Stone Age, Muse, Emarosa, Oceansize would argue with that.

Hell, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, tons of pop stuff has skill talent and good tunes.

Candy pop that won't last a generation perhaps but the tunes are well crafted.

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Quote JamesSimpson:

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The first stuff i probably listened to was s club 7 or some junk.

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Nowt wrong with S Club 7 if you just accept them for what they were - a fluffy pop group aimed at kids rather than a revolutionary musical force.

I am not sure why the boys were in the band but the girls were actually a fine close harmony vocal ensemble who could sing exceptionally well, do great harmonies and they could sing and dance and put on a great live show with sell-out tours ... and you don't get many of those to the pound these days!

I had no shame buying S Club 7 CDs (my little'un loved them when she was a kiddie) or turning up the volume on the car radio when they came on. They made some great pop music.

Me? Favourite doctorS, I'm afraid - William Hartnell and Chris Eccleston (though I liked Tom Baker's slightly bonkers take and Matt Smith's for the same reason - Tennant showed promise but then ended up gurning in every episode).

And favourite decadeS as well...

70s (especially the first half) and the 80s but also a big fan of 50s and 60s pre-synth electronica. Also late 13th, 17th and 19th centuries.

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I suppose I'd have to say 1970s as so much of the music that informed my taste when I was younger and that I still go back to was made then - Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Faust, Neu!, Cluster etc. etc.

Having said that there was an awful lot of good stuff made in the 1980s and 1990s. I can't really say the same about the subsequent decade; but that's personal taste I guess.

As for Dr. Who I'd have to go for Jon Pertwee (the first one I saw) or maybe Tom Baker. But I did stop watching it post-Baker and haven't seen it since (no TV you see).

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Gear List: reverse only.

I actually prefer the Asgalard Liquid Fire stuff from the 2130s

The Neural Glass sound from the 2300s is interesting, but of course requires direct sonic injection implant technology.

The Atlantans were doing some pretty wild stuff with natural stone oscillators back in 9600BC, but of course the seismic fallout risk from that genre is now well documented.

Now if I could just get this damn Tardis to get me back to 1973, I'll try to see if I can convince the guys to make Tales from Topographic Oceans a single album.

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Music:

70s:

Led Zeppelin, Yes, Jimi Hendrix at the start; Sex Pistols, Souxsie and the punks at the end.

And all the Bernie Edwards funky disco stuff from New York.

And Miles Davis was still alive and kicking.

Dr Who:

That bloke who does the voice overs for Little Britain. Although I always preferred Bake's Seven, to be honest. Especially when they said: "Take it on manual, Jenna."

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Instant gratification is actually pretty good. It's fast as well.

Quote MarkOne:

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I actually prefer the Asgalard Liquid Fire stuff from the 2130s

The Neural Glass sound from the 2300s is interesting, but of course requires direct sonic injection implant technology.

The Atlantans were doing some pretty wild stuff with natural stone oscillators back in 9600BC, but of course the seismic fallout risk from that genre is now well documented.

Now if I could just get this damn Tardis to get me back to 1973, I'll try to see if I can convince the guys to make Tales from Topographic Oceans a single album.

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<applause>

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Original artwork and unique devices inspired by vintage technology http://www.thisisobsolete.com

Quote SecretSam:

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Bake's Seven

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I had a massive argument with my Mum about going to Cub Scouts because it clashed with Blake's Seven. Back in those days when the Internet was a secret organisation passing handwritten notes around the world via amphetamine riddled mice on tiny bicycles and video recorders were powered by massive vacuum tubes the size of, well, vacuum cleaners, and only the military had access to them, if you missed a show you missed it. Mum won and I had to put up with months of proto-fascist dogma and didn't get to see Blake's Seven until I was a kidult. I got the last laugh though. I punished her by becoming a musician. Haha! That'll teach you Mum. Right where's my giro ... <whimper><sob>

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Original artwork and unique devices inspired by vintage technology http://www.thisisobsolete.com

Tom Baker.

Pertwee was good too though.

John Pertwee of course!

And music was never the same once DJs became 'musicians'.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Dunno about that Dubbers. When I first began my Trekkie journey it was to cardboard sets and Kirk. However, when 7 of 9 entered the foray sh1t changed.

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Samplecraze
Stretch That Note

Quote The Elf:

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John Pertwee of course!

And music was never the same once DJs became 'musicians'.

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Surely you mean, "when DJs thought they had become 'musicians'"?

(Light blue touch paper and stand well back)

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Original artwork and unique devices inspired by vintage technology http://www.thisisobsolete.com

Edited by jellyjim (09/05/11 10:19 AM)

Cub Scouts, eh ?

Middle-aged men teaching boys in shorts about manly outdoor things. Much healthier than sitting around watching telly .... or so your Mum must have thought in the 70s



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Instant gratification is actually pretty good. It's fast as well.

Sigh, someone always has to go there (and obviously missed the new foroum T&C's).

For musicians, I wonder if we are allowed two decades? The decade listening through our formative years, the other when we learnt to play our respective instruments?

For me it would be the 80's (as a kid) but I didn't learn guitar until I was a teenager, so early 90's (and I have a great love for the guitar bands of that era, as much as I do for 80's tunes).

Favourite Doctor? Alice Roberts.

"My" Doctor Who is Sylvester McCoy, and I do have fond affection for his role. But I would say the reboot Doctors are my Favourite, Chris Eccleston was inspired (and a good move from McGann back to more McCoy/Baker) and Tennant was a legend. I do like Matt Smith too, slowly easing himself into the role well.

The real secret of the new Who is the shows scripts and FX, I wonder if future generations will spend hours debating Smith, Tennant, Eccleston?

Hewesy

If the 60s was the childhood, music grew up and came to maturity in the 70s.

Thing about the 70s is that NEW things were being developed for the first time. Even electric music using synths which people tend to associate with the 80s (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream etc).

Many/most(?) of the common genres today had their genesis or development in the 70s.

There was more experimentation in the 80s, but on the whole it didn't produce such great music as the previous decade, in my opinion.

Of course great music was made since, but there was something about discovering entrely new teritory in the 70s i reckon.

Dr Who? I've lived through all of em, and each had his charms...apart from Peter Davison

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Quote Hewesy:

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The real secret of the new Who is the shows scripts and FX

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Not that much of a 'secret' when they show us how the FX, etc., were done in all the behind-the-scenes stuff in 'Dr Who Confidential' and the back story and backstage shots are in The Radio Times before the programme's aired, etc.. A lot of the mystery has gone.

And the music's shite now. Bring back The Radiophonic Workshop, I say!

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Favourite decade? I can't even choose a favourite century!

Quote hollowsun:

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Bring back The Radiophonic Workshop, I say!

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I second that motion.

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I have a very special mic placement for stroppy divas.

As far as I'm concerned there weren't any doctors between Tom Baker and Christopher Ecclestone. But I'll happily agree with the previous poster that the best doctor currently on TV is Alice Roberts.

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Daniel Davis
Edinburgh Recording Studio Windmill Sound

As for the decade, well each decade has good music and bad music. People often look at the 60s through rose-tinted specs - mostly because they don't play most of the rubbish from that period any more.

There was a huge amount of rubbish in (particularly the second half of) the 80s - which was sorely remembered and slated in the 90s, but now only the good stuff is remembered. What is interesting is that songs that only made top40 in the 80s are still played whereas stuff that doesn't make top5 now is forgotten very quickly.

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Daniel Davis
Edinburgh Recording Studio Windmill Sound

Quote Daniel Davis:

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As far as I'm concerned there weren't any doctors between Tom Baker and Christopher Ecclestone.

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Much as I respect Chris Ecclestone as an actor, I thought his DW was a bit of a failure - it always seemed to me like he didn't quite know what to do with the character, and he never fully inhabited him - consequently I thought his performances were unbelievable and clumsy.

At least Tennant fully embraced the character with vigour and made him his own, which is what the character demands imo.

The years between about 78 and 94. New Wave, Electro, Goth and the Seattle explosion. The 80s I guess.

Dr. Who?

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Dr Who? Modern ones are just junk. Poor scripts, poor stories, poor acting (yes even worse than the 80s). BUT lots of loud bangs for the kids.....


Music? I love something from every year ......

Quote narcoman:

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Dr Who? Modern ones are just junk. Poor scripts, poor stories, poor acting (yes even worse than the 80s). BUT lots of loud bangs for the kids.....

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Some have been excellent. The Van Gough one was a great bit of television.

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Quote:

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Much as I respect Chris Ecclestone as an actor, I thought his DW was a bit of a failure

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I wasn't impressed that he dropped the role again after only a year, because he didn't want to be typecast or something. An insult to a noble tradition.

First Doctor William Hartnell 1963–1966
Second Doctor Patrick Troughton 1966–1969
Third Doctor Jon Pertwee 1970–1974
Fourth Doctor Tom Baker 1974–1981
Fifth Doctor Peter Davison 1981–1984
Sixth Doctor Colin Baker 1984–1986
Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy 1987–1989
Eighth Doctor Paul McGann 1996
Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston 2005
Tenth Doctor David Tennant 2005–2010
Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith 2010–present

Paul McGann...? Don't remember him. (Stopped watching after Colin Baker.)

*edit* (Oh, it was a film. So, yeah, Eccleston had the shortest tenure. Quitter.)

Tom Baker & the 80s

Does this make everyone on the site somewhere between 35 & 45?

Quote narcoman:

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Dr Who? Modern ones are just junk. Poor scripts, poor stories, poor acting (yes even worse than the 80s). BUT lots of loud bangs for the kids.....

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Mostly agree, apart from the Steven Moffat ones, which have been uniformly excellent - because *he* is uniformly excellent, from Press Gang onwards. (Nobody mention Chalk, though...)

I haven't caught any of the current Steven Moffat produced series though, just haven't had the time, so I have no opinion on those.

Quote hollowsun:

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Quote Hewesy:

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The real secret of the new Who is the shows scripts and FX

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Not that much of a 'secret' when they show us how the FX, etc., were done in all the behind-the-scenes stuff in 'Dr Who Confidential' and the back story and backstage shots are in The Radio Times before the programme's aired, etc.. A lot of the mystery has gone.

And the music's shite now. Bring back The Radiophonic Workshop, I say!

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Good point, poor choice of words. Secret to the attraction maybe? Although the behind the scenes stuff is rather cool and does help the "how" factor for us geeks...

I agree wholeheartedly with the last part though. Mr. Gold is churning out some dire stuff - each series has a new reworking of the theme. Stick with Delia's, it was spot on first of all..

Hewesy

Quote Hewesy:

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Stick with Delia's, it was spot on first of all..

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Yup.

The new one sounds like a mashup of a poor Hollywood version of the original and the theme from 'This Is Your Life'.

And the opening visual effects of the original put the willies right me. It was just a feedback effect or something - a camera recording the monitor it was being displayed on... or something. Creepy though.

It's interesting to see the shift over the ages. If you watch the very first episode, it's more like 'Quatermass And The Pit' ... dark and creepy and mysterious ... than the later ones which have become more and more fluffy. Yes, the effects and everything (except the 'music') have improved but the atmosphere has gone.

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

What I dont get is that the 'young 'uns' are mad for anything retro these days - check out the Fleet Fox's faux aged film and tape machines video, or even dance artists obsessions with Roland synths.

So why does Dr Who not tap into this - instead of the quasi symphonic rubbish that is hacked out at the minute. Even George Lucas knew not to touch the theme tune. Except for the cartoons. Which I quite like.

Anyhow...

I try to find something good in every decade. Its difficult to do that with the noughties, but thats no ones fault really - everything has been done to death - so we are running out of things to re-generate.

But like most readers here I spend most of my time in the 70's - the pinnacle of analogue tech, and the 80's - the opposite - new digital possibilites.

I reckon thats were most people are right now, young and old.

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Quote jellyjim:

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Quote The Elf:

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John Pertwee of course!

And music was never the same once DJs became 'musicians'.

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Surely you mean, "when DJs thought they had become 'musicians'"?

(Light blue touch paper and stand well back)

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Or perhaps you meant "when DJs thought they had become comedians"? I thought Radio 1 was supposed to be the UK's premier music station...

Best decade? 1967 - 1977 (why must it start with a zero?). Roughly, from Sgt Peppers (hooray) to the infliction of punk (boo). I quite like the attitude of punk, and I've played the stuff. But music... no, it's not.

I think that was when record labels started taking the piss and decided "they'll buy any sh*t we tell them to buy, so let's just sign up any old crap we can find and see how much money we can make having a laugh, because all those proper musos want bloody months in the studio to make a decent album, and it's hitting the overhead".

1967 was probably about the last time I watched Dr Who, so no comment!

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Dynamite with a laser beam...


Edited by Steve Hill (09/05/11 07:14 PM)

Dear, oh dear. Where to start?

Music
With hindsight I was exceptionally fortunate and exposed to a very wide range on music very early on. First, while in London my primary school took a bunch of us the the Festival Hall for what was called an introduction to the orchestra. great fun, not a bit stuffy and we reveled in it.

Then we had a young couple as lodgers for a while who were absolutely nuts on the big band sound and had an electric 'gramophone'! As if that wasn't enough an elder cousin went to a school that ran very high quality Gilbert & Sullivan productions. My first taste of this was the year he had a small part (so all the relatives were obliged to attend). My brother hated it and I loved it, managing to pester my parents into taking me quite a few years - until we moved.

Gaining my geek credentials early I had my own bedside 'wireless' by the time I was 9-10 having fixed it myself, so, because I could, I listened to all the late night shows From Paul Robeson to Adam Faith!

After that I discovered Radio Luxemburg and it was downhill all the way

For {cough} modern {cough} music I'm a 1960's lover, but then again, I mostly play a synth

Dr Who
I've been a watcher right from the first series with William Hartnell. One thing that was very impressive about him at the time was that he understood the transition from stage or cinema to TV, and almost always made small close-up gestures. This made him a camera-man's favorite, as he was so easy to keep fully in-shot.

I liked all the doctors except Colin Baker who really didn't seem to fit the part at all. This was a great disappointment as Tom Baker was easily my favorite! The only one I haven't watched is the 'new boy', but then I don't watch TV at all now.

{phew} Can I go now?

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Quote Neil C:

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(why do all the modern Dr.Who's have to end with an 8 minute overwrought emotional crisis?)

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Because Dr Who usually reflects the national mood, which, since a certain princess died in a car accident, has been one of overblown, sentimentalised, pathological, and, it seems, obligatory emotional projectile vomiting at the least excuse. We've become a nation of narcissistic ninnies.

Anyway - the first music I ever heard was George Formby, and while I have a softish spot for the old git, I would freely admit it's basically crap. I like anything, new, old, even very very old, as long it's good, and regardless of when I first heard it.

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