Looking over pop culture history, what do you think is the fastest shift in music style?  I think the shift that happened around 1993 is a definite contender.  1992 and 1994 are both very different sounding years, despite being only two years apart.  Another contender was the shift from the '70s to the '80s.  1982 sounded very different compared to 1979.

What do you think?

Going strictly by single years, I would say these...

1963 - This year went from the early 60s dark age to the very dawn of music being excellent for several decades straight. Even before the Beatles arrived in the United States, they were already huge in Britain by the end of the year and were surrounded by both soul music, as well as other merseybeat bands that were a huge step ahead of almost anything to come out of 1962, a year dominated by formulaic stagnation.

1964 - Another hugely transformative year, considering January was strictly early 60s music with a new creative edge and surf rock being in its peak, while the end of the year was totally ruled by the British Invasion, as well as Motown entering its absolute peak.

1979 - At the start of the year, disco was at its absolute peak and rock music was still mostly similar to what it was in 1975. By the end of the year, however, disco was quickly being overtaken by post-disco and both synthpop and new wave had emerged as prominent genres of music in the mainstream.

1997 - This year was especially changeful in the United States, in particular. In January, you had lots of eurodance and g-funk on the charts, as well as the final significant grunge song, "Blow Up the Outside World," making it a predominantly mid-90s, Gen-X atmosphere with only a few stylistic exceptions such as Ginuwine's "Pony" and Blackstreet's "No Diggity." By December, however, the Y2K teen pop movement was in full bloom, with the Spice Girls, Hanson, Savage Garden, and the Backstreet Boys all being among the very biggest things in popular music, with classic eurodance being completely dead and g-funk productions being almost entirely confined to albums only. Timbaland's influence on popular music was also much more apparent, not just from his own productions but those from beyond such as Usher's "You Make Me Wanna" and the remix of "Show Me Love" at the end of the 1997 reissue of Robyn Is Here. Hip hop went from the awkward transition between 2Pac and Biggie's deaths to full-on materialistic, shiny suit Puff Daddy & Mase on one side and Dirty South No Limit Soldiers on the other. Rock and alternative music changed a bit as well, with the popular bands going from Gin Blossoms, Cranberries, and Hootie & the Blowfish in January to Smash Mouth, Matchbox 20, and Third Eye Blind by December. In Britain, the Y2K teen pop movement had already become established by the last third of 1996, but it only continued to grow as 1997 went on (Steps and 5ive made their debuts near the end of the year), not to mention the britpop movement lost its momentum after Oasis released Be Here Now. Electronic music was also revolutionized by acts like Daft Punk and Sash!, not to mention the emergence of the 2-step garage genre, which would dominate the Y2K era in the UK.

2009 - Music went from being almost entirely leftover late 2000s blandness to predominantly early 2010s electropop over the course of a single year.

Honourable mention goes to 1975, which saw the sudden burst of disco, as well as the commercial breakthrough of several Gen-Jones musical acts. I left the year off the main list, however, because a decent amount of music it produced still would not have sounded terribly out of place in 1974, even though the same can also pretty much be said about 1978, as well.

Going strictly by single years, I would say these...

1963 - This year went from the early 60s dark age to the very dawn of music being excellent for several decades straight. Even before the Beatles arrived in the United States, they were already huge in Britain by the end of the year and were surrounded by both soul music, as well as other merseybeat bands that were a huge step ahead of almost anything to come out of 1962, a year dominated by formulaic stagnation.

1964 - Another hugely transformative year, considering January was strictly early 60s music with a new creative edge and surf rock being in its peak, while the end of the year was totally ruled by the British Invasion, as well as Motown entering its absolute peak.

1979 - At the start of the year, disco was at its absolute peak and rock music was still mostly similar to what it was in 1975. By the end of the year, however, disco was quickly being overtaken by post-disco and both synthpop and new wave had emerged as prominent genres of music in the mainstream.

1997 - This year was especially changeful in the United States, in particular. In January, you had lots of eurodance and g-funk on the charts, as well as the final significant grunge song, "Blow Up the Outside World," making it a predominantly mid-90s, Gen-X atmosphere with only a few stylistic exceptions such as Ginuwine's "Pony" and Blackstreet's "No Diggity." By December, however, the Y2K teen pop movement was in full bloom, with the Spice Girls, Hanson, Savage Garden, and the Backstreet Boys all being among the very biggest things in popular music, with classic eurodance being completely dead and g-funk productions being almost entirely confined to albums only. Hip hop went from the awkward transition between 2Pac and Biggie's deaths to full-on materialistic, shiny suit Puff Daddy & Mase on one side and Dirty South No Limit Soldiers on the other. Rock and alternative music changed a bit as well, with the popular bands going from Gin Blossoms, Cranberries, and Hootie & the Blowfish in January to Smash Mouth, Matchbox 20, and Third Eye Blind by December. In Britain, the Y2K teen pop movement had already become established by the last third of 1996, but it only continued to grow as 1997 went on (Steps and 5ive made their debuts near the end of the year), not to mention the britpop movement lost its momentum after Oasis released Be Here Now. Electronic music was also revolutionized by acts like Daft Punk and Sash!, not to mention the emergence of the 2-step garage genre, which would dominate the Y2K era in the UK.

2009 - Music went from being almost entirely leftover late 2000s blandness to predominantly early 2010s electropop over the course of a single year.

Honourable mention goes to 1975, which saw the sudden burst of disco, as well as the commercial breakthrough of several Gen-Jones musical acts. I left the year off the main list, however, because a decent amount of music it produced still would not have sounded terribly out of place in 1974, even though the same can also pretty much be said about 1978, as well.
It was also in 1975, that saw the re-emergence of The Bee Gees, from a ballad singing group to almost world leaders in the disco scene with "Saturday Night Fever".

It was also in 1975, that saw the re-emergence of The Bee Gees, from a ballad singing group to almost world leaders in the disco scene with "Saturday Night Fever".


They were one among many who made it huge in 1975, including Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Queen (in the United States; their UK breakthrough was 1974), Patti Smith, Fleetwood Mac, Earth, Wind & Fire; Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons' comeback, and Kiss, just to name only a few.

They were one among many who made it huge in 1975, including Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Queen (in the United States; their UK breakthrough was 1974), Patti Smith, Fleetwood Mac, Earth, Wind & Fire; Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons' comeback, and Kiss, just to name only a few.


1975 which was kind of a "standalone" year, being neither really part of the early 70s or late 70s (though if pushed, I would put it more as part of the early 70s as punk hadn't happened yet and disco wasn't what it would become, not to mention the Vietnam War still going on until April 30, 1975) was a year with the unique phenomenon of established artists from the 60s and early 70s suddenly having the biggest successes of their careers. Examples are Fleetwood Mac with the "Fleetwood Mac" album which went to #1 and had smash hits like "Over My Head" and "Rhiannon". Fleetwood Mac, in one form or another, had been kicking around since 1967. Of course, the #1 "Fleetwood Mac" album turned out to be only a hint of the successes that would come with 1977's "Rumours", one of the biggest selling albums in the history of life. Truth be told, I like "Fleetwood Mac" better than "Rumours". It just sounds fresher to me. Jefferson Starship had the biggest selling album of their carreer to date, including Jefferson Airplane albums, with "Red Octopus" and the "Miracles" single. And this is still the GOOD Jefferson Starship we're talking about with Paul Kantner and Marty Balin, not that later "Starship" abomination with shrill-voiced Mickey Thomas which is under discussion elsewhere on this board. Interestingly, on the album previous to "Red Octopus", 1974's "Dragon Fly" there is a song called "Ride The Tiger" in which, Paul Kantner, Nostradamus-like,  predicted the successes the band would have in 1975. He wrote "look to the summer of 75/all the world is gonna come alive". And then damned if "Red Octopus" doesn't go to #1 on the Billboard album chart THREE SEPARATE TIMES in the summer of 1975. It was also in 1975 that the Bee Gees, around since the 60s, began their second life as a disco band with the smash hits "Jive Talkin" and "Nights On Broadway". 1975 also saw bands that were "bubbling under" in the early 70s suddenly burst forth in a huge way, including Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen. This phenomenon continued into 1976 with Peter Franmpton, kicking around since the 60s in Humble Pie and as a solo artist, bursting forth with the phenomenon that was "Frampton Comes Alive".

1975 which was kind of a "standalone" year, being neither really part of the early 70s or late 70s (though if pushed, I would put it more as part of the early 70s as punk hadn't happened yet and disco wasn't what it would become, not to mention the Vietnam War still going on until April 30, 1975)

I strongly disagree with that. Vietnam stopped being significant in 1973 with the Paris Peace Accords, and punk was really only significant during the second half of the 70s in the UK, not really fermenting itself in any way in America until 1979, when new wave really took off. Even in 1975, much of the glam rock at the time, like Mud's "L'l'lucy" for example, was not tremendously different from actual late 70s punk, even without the confrontational themes (I could also bring up Iggy and the Stooges, though they weren't as mainstream). Disco was huge in 1975, between songs like "The Hustle," Gloria Gaynor's cover of "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Philadelphia Freedom," "Shining Star," "That's the Way (I Like It)," "What Am I Gonna Do With You?," "Island Girl," and numerous others doing extremely well on the charts, a stark contrast to 1974, which barely had anything representing the genre at its fullest. Hot Chocolate even had a song in 1975 called "Disco Queen." Television in 1975 was also tremendously closer to the late 70s than the early 70s, with shows like Happy Days, Little House on the Prairie, and Good Times fully established, as well as numerous others making their debuts, such as Welcome Back, Kotter; Saturday Night Live, Barney Miller, The Jeffersons, and Fawlty Towers. Meanwhile, major staples of the early 70s such as The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, and Monty Python's Flying Circus had ended the previous year. I honestly consider 1975 to be pretty much part of the same cultural era as 1978, whose atmosphere is really no closer to the end of the decade than it is to 1975. I would say the 1974-1975 school year was a sort of transitional period between the first and second major eras of the 70s, but that by autumn 1975, the "classic" 70s were pretty much fully established.

Examples are Fleetwood Mac with the "Fleetwood Mac" album which went to #1 and had smash hits like "Over My Head" and "Rhiannon". Fleetwood Mac, in one form or another, had been kicking around since 1967.

The funny thing is that Fleetwood Mac was practically an entirely different band in the 60s, as Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and even Christine McVeigh were not present during the "Albatross" days. They were also virtually unknown in the United States until 1975 and were actually less successful in the UK during the classic 70s than they were during the late 60s.

a stark contrast to 1974, which barely had anything representing the genre at its fullest. Hot Chocolate even had a song in 1975 called "Disco Queen.


There were 5 disco songs that reached #1 on the pop charts in 1974, starting with "The Sound of Philadelphia" in April, "Rock The Boat" and "Rock Your Baby" in July, "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" in September and "Kung Fu Fighting" in December. Disco may not have been as huge in 1974 then it would be in the following years, but I'd say that this year was when disco really started to rise as a music genre, not 1975.