The sad modern fact about today's commercialized music compared to the meaningful music of the past: the better a modern "artist" CAPTURES people with GIMMIKS; lyrics that are simple to understand, melodies that are just catchy and easy to remember, and songs that are made just for humming, not for artistic expression, the more the hits, youtube views, money, etc... Music was once based on talent, meaningful, deep lyrics, experimentation in melodies to express one's talent in eclectic ways, and music was made for meaningful expression as an art, not money as a commercialized product where meaning is not the goal, but profit is. So more succes with modern music doesn't mean it's better, it only means it is more commercialy CAPTURING and has CAPTURED people through those superficial GIMMIKS of commercialisation and production... so it seems that what was once an ARTISTIC creation, has been turned into nothing more but a inauthentic, easily listenable and appealing, simple, catchy and hummable PRODUCT, at the maximum 5 minutes long, with lyrics that (compared to the past) are not meant to give one a deeper insight into an expression of emotions on a subject, beats that are made just to simply remember and do not even require actual skill with a real instrument as they are made on a computer, melodies and singing that are easy to dance to and hum and are created as fast and talentless as possible, computerized, autotuned, made so it is easily remixeable, etc... skill, talent or anything else authentic the music of the past had is not even required anymore! Now, where has real, meaningful music (like below) gone? Here is my FULL list of favorites... Peace out and rock on!... (Now...
A "rough" favorites list) (I mean THE ERA THE ARTIST(S) IS MOST RECOGNIZED FROM)... Though musicians like (say) Elvis would have more great songs beyond (in this case) the 50s, they would have to have had an almost as good second decade to be listed twice... take Rush... only listed once as they are remembered for (IMHO mostly) the 70s and just early 80s, while AC/DC, Queen and Stones are listed twice for being good and recognized most in a majority of time in both their respective decades...) Also because I put a band also means I also like the solo careers of it's members... I put The Beatles, so I also like the careers that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had after they broke up... this can also apply to (say) my putting of CSNY, meaning I also follow the career of (say) Neil Young outside the band... There may be more than 1 artist in 1 spot... or in the case of the 60s and 70s, a list ending with "etc" to show a "couple" (*sigh*) of examples of artists that I like that come to mind... THIS LIST MAY CHANGE SLIGHTLY ONCE IN A WHILE AS ONE IS CONSTANTLY DISCOVERING AMAZING MUSIC FROM THIS ERA THAT SPANS 50 YEARS...
So...
Top "10" Favorites from every decade (though no too much particular order)
50s
1. Elvis
2. Chuck Berry
3. Les Paul
4. Buddy Holly
5. Muddy Waters
6. Bill Haley-Ricky Nelson-Everly Brothers
7. Little Richard-SonnyBoyWilliams2-Jimmy Reed
8. Carl Perkins-Howlin' Wolf-Little Walter
9. Bo Diddley-Fats Domino-T-Bone Walker
10. Eddie Cochran-Gene Vincent-Jerry Lee Lewis

60s
1. Beatles
2. Stones
3. Doors
4. Hendrix
5. Bob Dylan
6. Clapton
7. Who
8. VelvetUnderground
9. Simon&Garfunkel-Davey Graham-Nick Drake
10. meh... anybody "decent" for this spot... Janis Joplin, Iron Butterfly, Blue Cheer, Small Faces, Yardbirds, Byrds, Tim Buckley, Donovan, BB King, Freddie King, Albert King, The Animals, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Hollies, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Bert Jansch, Moby Grape, Lonnie Mack, The Move, Jefferson Airplane, John Fahey, Country Joe and
The Fish, CSNY, Steppenwolf, CCR, etc...

70s
1. LedZep
2. Sabbath
3. Purple
4. Floyd and other great prog/art rock bands
5. Queen-AC/DC
6. Budgie-Bob Dylan
7. Aerosmith-Stones
8. Rush
9. Who
10. meh... just like the last decade anybody "decent"... Rory Gallagher, Roy Harper, Jim Croce, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Fairport Convention, Alice Cooper, Thin Lizzy, The Kinks, Uriah Heep, UFO, ELP, Grateful Dead, Santana, Bert Jansch, Scorpions, Nazareth, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Camel, James Taylor, Eagles, Kansas, CSNY, Allman Brothers Band, John McLaughlin, Television, Judas Priest, etc...

80s
1. Maiden
2. Queen-AC/DC
3. Van Halen
4. Judas Priest
5. GnR-Screaming Trees
6. Motörhead-Pixies-DinosaurJr
7. Saxon, Tank, Raven, Diamond Head and other great NWOBHM bands
8. SRV-Leppard-The Smiths
9. Accept-Dio-Scorpions
10. U2-Talking Heads-REM

90s
1. Nirvana
2. Dream Theater
3. Pearl Jam
4. Soundgarden-Screaming Trees
5. Queensrÿche-Pixies-DinosaurJr
6. Alice in Chains-Phish-RadioHead
7. Fates Warning-Porcupine Tree-Blind Melon
8. STP-Kyuss-Jeff Buckley
9. GnR-Mudhoney-SmashingPumpkins
10. U2-Our Lady Peace-REM

I'm just a guy who one day in Grade 4 heard I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles and felt something different than when listening to the popular modern music... I got interested as to why that feeling that older, more authentic music gives the listener is so much different than the one felt when listening to commercialized modern music... the rest is history... I realized the differences between modern music (which to me always felt like there was something not right, something unpure, something missing) and the music made before I was born. Ever since that day, I became more and more hooked... and by 2009, I had decided I wanted to bring back the pure and real music of yesterday... and by September of that year, I was hooked on learning guitar, and my fandome for classic rock grew from 10 or 20 bands to an absolute never ending quest to absorb every pure, real and authentic musician from the latter half of the 20th century and beyond and using all those never ending influences to revive their music once again make music by their standards, in an artful, commmercially unbarring, unsuperficial, inspiring, authentic, (etc) form all those influences in some genre made and stood for, until it was somehow forgotten and taken over by lesser, commercial music that was just the opposite, taking over almost completely sometime in the late 90s... my username means down with (well I used just one modern "musician", you know who I mean by the one who is known as "the baby") the unpure modern products called "music" and bring back the true art of music that was mostly last heard in the 90s.