When were the good old days?

[Barrister]

I was born in 1975, and you sir are a monster.

Guilty as charged.

I've also always found the conservative love for the 50s amusing, given that marginal tax rates were around 90 percent, unionization peaked, and Eisenhower was the face of the GOP.

So I know nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and I don't just endlessly sit listening to 80s music and watching 80s movies.

But damn - when I do watch or listen to something from that era, it hits way harder.

[Josquius]

I've read that if you are working in an organisation, the glory years of said organisation is usually no less than 3 years before you joined.

I do always seem to join new workplaces at around this time. 

[Tamas]

Yeah I absolutely accept that I like the popular music of my youth best because those were the days of my youth.

But knowing that doesn't change the fact that I also feel very strongly that today's popular music is a crapalcade of identical autotune excrement.

[Duque de Bragança]

Yeah, the Eurovision Song Contest was not always that bad. 
With a couple exceptions in later years.

[Grey Fox]

I find it surprising that when it comes to studies like this no ones seems to mentioned that in North America, the post-war era is one of where infrastructure was new & new ones where being built everyday. It is easy to look back at a decade and think of it has great when everything was new and newish.

I was born in 1984 and I love late 70s to mid 80s rock.
My (almost) 13 years old also thinks no good music predates 2020.

[Barrister]

What gets me is when I went to say "of they still make really great music these days" the songs I think of are all 15-20 years ago.

I still think they make good music these days.  I can turn on the radio to a modern alternative rock station and I like the songs they're playing.  It's just music isn't as important so I never bother to learn the artist or song names.

[crazy canuck]

Born in the early 70s.  I don't care much for the movies or music of the mid-80ss . . .

The most close-knit communities:    1930s (pre suburbs, no war)
The least close-knit communities:   2020s
The most moral society:  2000s
The least moral society: 1930s (Jim Crow etc)
The least political division: 1950s
The greatest political division: 2020s
The happiest families: 2010s pre COVID
The least happy families: 1930s
The most reliable news reporting: 1970s
The least reliable news reporting: 2020s or 1940s (war censorship)
The best music: 1960s.  Maybe an argument for the 50s. No other time comes close IMO.
The worst music: 1990s
The best radio: 1940s
The worst radio: 2020s
The best fashion: 1940s
The worst fashion: 1980s
The best economy: 2020s
the worst economy: 1930s
The best movies: 1970s
The worst movies: 1980s
The best television: 2000s
The worst television: 1930s
The best sporting events: 1970s
The worst sporting events: 1930s
The best cuisine: 2020s
The worst cuisine: 1940s

Hmm I learned something today.  I thought we were closer in age.

Born in the mid sixties

I agree with most of what you have said with these few exceptions:

The most close-knit communities:   1900's rather than the 1930s (pre suburbs, no war) - people were on the move in the 30s because of the farm foreclosures.

The best music: 1960s. Agreed but moving into the early part of the 70s as well.
The worst music: 1990s- can we lump the mid 80s into that?

[Savonarola]

As I say though there is objective data out there suggesting modern trends are...not good.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/29/song-lyrics-getting-simpler-more-repetitive-angry-and-self-obsessed-study

The results also confirmed previous research which had shown a decrease in positive, joyful lyrics over time and a rise in those that express anger, disgust or sadness.

This reminds me of something one of my college professors (a rather crusty old gentleman who had been in the navy during the Second World War) said.  In 1952 the number one song in the United States was Patti Page's "How much is that Doggie in the Window?"  Twenty years later it was Simon and Garfunkel's  "Bridge Over Troubled Water."  And I hear music like that and it puts me in the bitch bag right away.  What ever happened to happy?  (It was especially amusing as almost no one in the class had even been born when "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was released.  I'm sure he would have hated "Smells Like Teen Spirit" even more.)

Also: 

"Rap music has become more angry than the other genres,"

[Valmy]

The most close-knit communities:    Pre-1920s According to my mother's Okie parents this is when it all went wrong!

The least close-knit communities:   Sort of a theme of my lifetime has been people feeling alienated and wanting communities. I guess I would say 1990s since that was before we could find our weirdos online.

The most moral society:  Society today seems more obsessed with finding and shunning evil than even the 1980s when everybody was supposedly satanic. But maybe people are getting a little tired of it. I will say 2010s.

The least moral society: The 1980s seemed to borderline get off on destroying important pillars of communities and enjoying seeing gay people die of aids and the impoverished inner city suffer.

The least political division: 1940s. World War II.
The greatest political division: 1960s but we seem to be in a stupider and more sustained version of that now.

The happiest families: 2010s...I guess. I don't know. It seemed like there were more divorces and disruption in the 1970s and 1980s

The least happy families: 1930s obviously.

The most reliable news reporting: 1970s which was probably the height of local media

The least reliable news reporting: 1980s and 1990s when cable news and corporate juggernauts took over.

The best music: 1970s but you can throw the late 1960s in there to. Having said that some of the lamest and worst music was also made in this era, kind of feast or famine I think.

The worst music: 2020s. Even the bad periods before were more odd than bad, like the weird 1988 to September 1991 era. I will just say now just because even the bands and artists I do know about I am more familiar with their music from a decade ago than their new stuff. I am sure there is good music being made out there, I am just having a hard time finding it.

The best radio: 1970s, before the big corporations bought up all the stations.

The worst radio: 2020s...radio? What's that?

The best fashion: 1960s

The worst fashion: Late 1980s. Wow. What were we thinking?

The best economy: 1960s. Before the oil crisis led to us deciding to destroy our economies in the 1980s.
the worst economy: 1930s for obvious reasons.

The best movies: 1970s. A true artists decade.

The worst movies: 2020s. Good stuff is still being made but I have never seen the industry in this grim a shape.

The best television: 2010s
The worst television: 1970s. TV before cable seems really lame.
The best sporting events: 1990s

The worst sporting events: 1940s, though in the US all sports before the 50s were marred by the whole race thing.

The best cuisine: 2020s. There is a ridiculous amount of great food now...if you can afford it.
The worst cuisine: 1980s or around there. There seemed to be some movement to overwhelm us with shitty restaurants and shitty fatty foods around this time.

[Jacob]

• Close knit communities: The prevalence of close knit communities are a function of how many large vs small communities there are, and of ethnic and class heterogeneity. There's no particular value to there being more or less close knit communities, as there are pros and cons to closeness vs distance.
• Moral societies: each era was moral (and immoral) according to its own morality. It's merely that the definition of morality continues to shift.
• Political Division - Most: 1930s (Bolsheviks, the rise of Fascism)
• Political Division - Least: 1990s (Cold War Victory and Western values)
• Happy Families - Most: 1950s (post war optimism and baby boom, contrasting with what came before)
• Happy Families - Least: 1940s (death and suffering from WWII)
• News Reporting: I lack the knowledge to really comment, but I'm concerned about the impact of social media.
• Music: all eras have merit. Music post 20o0 and onwards have less personal impact but that's subjective.
• Radio, TV, Film, Sports: don't have a strong opinion.
• Fashion: it's all good.
• Economy: Not sure if the 80s, 2010s, or 2020s are the best. The worst is probably the Great Depression (30s).
• Cuisine: Best is now (2020s). Don't know about worst.

[Syt]

I feel this video ties into the discussion quite nicely, filtered through how Star Wars uses nostalgia to appeal to (some) its fans: