Get it? That joke ranks high on a list of 40-year-old pop culture references.
Anyway, today I break out my latest rankings. A few months ago, I ranked the generations – with early favorite "The Greatest Generation" finishing behind the much-knocked Millennials. Today? We'll rank the decades.
Using a purely scientific method, I will rank the 1960s through the 2000s (the 2010s aren't done yet, so it's a nice cutoff). While everything is in play, we'll pay particular attention to pop culture, sports and world events.
It's science, so don't argue. Here are the rankings, starting at the bottom.
5. 2000s: It's hard to feel great about a decade that included the Sept. 1, 2001, terror attacks and the Great Recession: The worst attack on U.S. soil followed seven years later by the worst recession in 70 years. And in between, we had two major military engagements and the start of the New England Patriots dynasty. Ugh.
On the plus side, we did have the best years of "American Idol," the birth of social media and all those "Harry Potter" books and movies.
4. 1970s: The most dramatic musical decade, with the collision of rock, R&B, disco and punk. The 1970s also saw the end of the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon. In entertainment, there was a weird contrast between a major improvement in movies (more realistic films, plus the advent of blockbusters) and horrendous TV shows ("Happy Days," "The Jeffersons," "Three's Company").
Sports, a major factor for me, wasn't great in the 1970s. And you have to deduct for the hair, styles and food. To be fair, we really needed a breather between two epic decades (spoiler alert!).
3. 1990s: The tech boom, Bill Clinton's presidency, the emergence of hip-hop and grunge music as mainstream and, most significantly, the birth of my two sons makes this a really important decade. The 1990s saw the Gulf War, the O.J. Simpson trial and dynasties by the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bulls and New York Yankees – all of which troubled most of America.
If you liked boy bands or Brittany Spears, the late '90s were remarkable. The decade was high-tech (AOL, pagers), but it was the last gasp before we all got fully connected. No Twitter or Facebook, which made it better or worse, depending on your perspective.
2. 1980s: Some really remarkable music (Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, U2) and a second wave of youth movies/TV shows in a decade dominated by Ronald Reagan. While it's funny to think of the technology of the decade (the Walkman, VCRs, early cellphones), the 1980s were when we made a leap into the information age – even if it was with old game systems and CDs.
TV gave us "The Cosby Show," (which seems creepy now, but was great at the time) "Cheers," "Seinfeld" and the dawn of modern drama with such programs as "Hill Street Blues" and "L.A. Law." The 49ers won four Super Bowls while Michael Jordan and Nike created a new partnership between marketing and sports. Oh, and world communism collapsed, too, for which the decade gets bonus points.
1. 1960s: America's most-heralded decade is the greatest decade of the past 50 years since it gave us the Beatles, Woodstock, the moon landing, the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam and a bunch of assassinations (clearly a mixed bag). It gets a lot of credit from baby boomers, who are overrated (see generations-ranking column), but in this case, they're right.
This was the decade that saw us transition from the post-World War II culture to modern culture. Like it or not, the 1960s shaped modern America. Oh, and I was born.
Brad Stanhope is a former Daily Republic editor. Reach him at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.
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