Well this all generally comes down to your personal taste in music. I was never really a huge fan of anything older than 80's music, but that's just me. While I did enjoy the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Stones, and ZZ Top, there really weren't many others. I fucking hate Hendrix and Zeppelin. Yeah... BOOOOOOOOO me. But I just can't stand that stuff. I'm well-aware of how good these years were for people who like that type of music and how influential those artists were to the era of music I prefer, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend I give the slightest fuck about that kind of stuff or even listen to it regularly because I don't.
1995 and 1996 were favorable years for me because alternative music and hip hop were really starting to reach maturity. Industrial music was also starting to be fused into other genres, most notably Marilyn Manson who released one of the greatest rock albums of all time in 1996. Some people see it as the decline of traditional industrial music, but I really just think people gave up on it. Also bands like Rage Against the Machine, the Fugees, and Wu Tang clan were breaking out, great artists with legit messages that actually meant something. This was actually one of the last years this type of stuff happened until 9/11 when everyone was cashing in on the tragedy that was more convenient for Americans to identify with.
1999-2000 were great years because of the explosion of electronic music genres such as trance, drum & bass, house, and re-emergence of breakbeat. Since I'm particularly fond of electronic music, these were great years for me. Though it also brought forth the explosion of boy bands and teenage prostitutes passing themselves off as music artists, so that wasn't pleasant. The electronic music scene was in full swing though, and attending raves during that period was definitely something special to be a part of before it just became an excuse to do drugs.
2003 was a fantastic year for nu metal. I probably bought more new CD's that year than any other year because I was in a band with a similar style of music and playing downtown in all the clubs and shit, so it was important to be up-to-date on that stuff. Bands like Spineshank, Disturbed, Mudvayne, and other were all going really hard that year. KoRn also made their last stand in relevance. For metal fans, this was a fun year.
2011-2012 have been good for dubstep so far, but I think it may still be some time before the genre reaches maturity. Skrillex got the ball rolling in the right direction, but I know a ton of British dubstep fans aren't pleased with it deviating so far away from grime and 2-step and becoming more influenced by rock. Hopefully it finds a balance in the next few years. I seriously doubt the genre will ever achieve mainstream praise, but I couldn't care less if it does or not.
