Can we all agree that the best metal overall was made in the 80s?

In the late 60s and early 70s artists had a lot more creative control into their product (especially in the Europe). That is the primary reason so much innovation and experimentation happened between '67 and '74 or so, because groups could basically do whatever the hell they wanted. Tons of diversity, experimentation and artistic expression.

In the mid-70s record labels stared exerting more pressure on artists to come up with hits, to be more focused in approach so they were more easily marketable. That label-controlled environment held steady throughout the 80s and most of the 90s. Most bands fit neatly into record label-approved genres because those were easily "packaged" and could be effectively targeted in advertisements. If a new sound came along then quickly a new genre would be created and labels would go out in search of bands they could include in that particular product line.

Then in the late 90s and early 00's once digital audio workstations became affordable artists were able to release their own product, the free expression and experimentation returned. There is much more musical diversity right now in 2014 because once again the labels don't have iron clad control any longer.

Probably not a coincidence that my music collection weighs heavily on 60s & 70s plus music from the 2000s onward. The heavily label-controlled eras being the least represented in my collection.

Most of my FAVORITE stuff came out in the 80's.. but I dig a fair amount of stuff from the 70s... and 2000 upward... but the nineties for a lot of stuff.... just eludes me... just me i guess...

My collection breaks down like so:

1950's: 5
1960's: 51
1970's: 113
1980's: 347
1990's: 707
2000's: 807
2010's: 318

So going by the numbers, the "best" was the 2000's apparently. That doesn't jive with me though. Despite it's paltry numbers in comparison, I'm a fan of the 80's stuff. That's when I discovered hard rock and heavy metal, so it's always gonna be considered the best of the bunch.

1950s 5 (0.13%)
1960s 134 (3.57%)
1970s 564 (15.0%)
1980s 933 (24.8%)
1990s 1301 (34.7%)
2000s 721 (19.2%)
2010s 91 (2.42%)


I am with MG, plus more then a few of my CD's are archives released in the 90's and 2000's