I know, I agree with you.

1) The Pixies
2) The Smiths
3) Dinosaur JR
4) Sonic Youth
5) Jesus & Mary Chain
6) Joy Division
7) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
8) The Wedding Present
9) R.E.M
10) The Stone Roses
11) The Cure
12) The Fall
13) The Feelies
14) The Flaming Lips
15) The Jam
16) Violent Femmes
17) Dead Kennedys
18) The Replacements
19) Hüsker Dü
20) XTC
21) Meat Puppets
22) X
23) Echo & The Bunnymen
24) Galaxie 500
25) The Cramps

I could go on...
The 80s were great.

You impress me man.

I do try, so what's not to like about the 80s? (apart from the obvious)
Loads of great bands out there. How couldn't you think of a measly 25 good ones?

I don't think so. But even supposing it is true (according to you), that would be a "too anglocentric" statement. In some non-English music scenes, the 80's are regarded as "the golden age". For instance, in Yugoslavia and the Hispanic world, as Drankrsta, Scissorman and I are showing at the two respective threads in the World Music section. ;)

Big3, still think the 90s wasn't the golden age for rap?? I mean really, there were at least double the amount of great rap CDs that came out in the 90s than probably the 80s and 2000s combined.

Easy homes. I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at the difference in perspective. I'm sure my take on the late 70s and early 80s is different than someone who remembers it well. It's just funny to me how different it is to experience the music of a certain period firsthand versus looking at it in retrospect with all crappiest stuff filtered out.

I think since you didn't really experience a lot of it firsthand you have some kind of mistaken impressions of the 90s. For one thing, for the first half of the 90s mainstream rock radio played stuff like Aerosmith, Tom Petty and Van Halen with a little Nirvana and Pearl Jam sprinkled in here and there as it got toward the middle of the decade. Around 1995 the mainstream rock stations largely changed format to be "alternative", but a lot of that was lame post-grunge stuff with more and more nu-metal as the 90s came to a close.

As far as MTV goes, I'm sure 120 Minutes (a staple of my early teens I must say) played Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. videos at one o'clock in the morning, but I would hardly call that stuff "very successful".

And as for Primus, they went platinum once in the 90s, not twice, and it took the album four years to reach that point.

It's elitist to have a different opinion from you? I'm sorry but the four albums you listed just don't do it for me. Each has a couple songs I like and a bunch of stuff I don't. Am I really required to love them? Do you love every single mainstream rock album that was released during your teens?

I didn't ignore that, in fact I said the hip hop was one of the better things about the decade. But a lot of the best stuff wasn't super-mainstream.

Yes.

You've highlighted what, 10 albums? If that constitutes the golden age then the 00's were the platinum age.

80's
Public Enemy
Run DMC
NWA
KRS One
Slick Rick
Grandmaster Flash
Afrikka Bambata for christ sakes
Beastie Boys

00's
Tons of great Jay-Z
50 cent
Eminem (by the way, cheap shot putting SSLP in the 90's)
Outkast
Dizzy Rascal
MC Paul Barman
Most Kayne
MF Doom
The Roots
Lupe Fiasco
Immortal Technique

Like I said, the list goes on and on for the 90s. Lol, did you want me to list literally every awesome rap album of the 90s? There is a reason most rap heads consider it the golden age of hip hop. Yes, obviously there is good stuff from other decades. But hell, just all the Nas and Wu Tang stuff alone makes the 90s unbelievable. Then Jay-Z and Em's early stuff, plus Biggie, Tupac, Dre, Snoop, etc. The east coast AND west coast blew up in the 90s.

The only real great stuff from the 2000s is Eminem and Jay Z. When you look at the best rap albums of all-time, the majority of the ones are from the 90s. I don't even think it's close.

I would argue that the Beastie Boys and the Roots released their best work in the 90s, Eminem and Outkast are points equally for the 90s and 00s, and Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Kanye West, and Lupe Fiasco are all strikes against the 00s.