Quote:
Originally Posted by zachsd
I agree with most of your points. Maybe we disagree just because most of what I listen to is from the 60s/70s. I still firmly believe that certain decades see a greater output of better quality music than other decades. I mean, proof that creatively stagnant (comparatively) eras exist in the first place is the Dark Ages. I don't see how this can't be applied to music as well.
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The notion of Dark Ages has long been debunked. That there was a period of 'darkness' after the glorious Classical antiquity is a Renaissance construction. We call that period Middle Ages now and although the term points out to the connection of Renaissance to Classical world, it doesn't imply that the period was creatively stagnant. We now know that Renaissance owes a lot to the Middle Ages almost as much as to Classical Antiquity.
The way I see it, there are periods that see creative explosions in the short span of time (I agree with that), but what comes after that is not creatively stagnant. On the contrary, those periods usually present further development of new ideas, more linear development and most importantly, more focused. Creative explosions carry some chaos with them, what comes afterwards is crystallizing and fulfilling of potentials. When it comes to music, I see another creative explosion, beside 60s, that also lasted for a short time - punk/new wave/post-punk period. In the light of what I said above, I see the 80s as a further development and fulfillment of those new ideas, so definitely not stagnant.