I was a late effort of boomer parents, I don’t even remember the 90’s. But they raised me on tunes from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. The best, imho, was between 1956-1966. Great melodies in pop music, and the Broadway musicals had some great lyrics too.
Interesting that they play oldies in stores. According to my mom, when she was young they rarely heard a 20-year-old recording on the radio (which would have been something from the 30’s or 40’s). Today it’s pretty unavoidable to hear 50’s tunes but you still don’t hear much from earlier years — unless you watch old movies.
I never used to like 40s music because of the recording quality, but I’ve revisited it over the last decade or so.
Of course, hearing 40s music playing through inexpensive 80s speakers, off a record or cassette tape, is bound to sound inferior to remastered versions playing on more quality speakers today.
Channel 71 (40s Juntion) on SiriusXM sounds great, for instance. I obviously didn’t have anything like that as a kid.
They play commercials with the music sounding like I remembered it, and then start the actual music. Night and day difference.