The 50s had Chuck Berry, Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles, and all those great doo-wop groups for starters. The 70s had the BeeGees and the Starland Vocal Band.
All those greats you mention came about in 57-58. 50-56 was crap.
And this is just dumb. Most of the great classic rock occurred in the 70s. Even a lot of great bands that began in the 60s did some of their best stuff in the 70s--Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who, Allmans, Grateful Dead. Plus you had Skynyrd, Steely Dan, Eagles. I mean, really. It's not even close.
Musically (and I mean POPULAR, not fringe nonsense as is often spoken on these and other forums), the 50s, 70s and 80s ROCKED. ;-)
The '60s were OK; saved more by the early left-over '50s stuff than by the whiny, goony, hippie stuff of the late.
The '90s - almost like a '60s hippie wannabe (in more than music - it's really the 60s that has the hold on today, not so much the 70s which takes the blame for what was really 60s - bell bottoms? UGH). Musically it's worse overall - horrid nasal whining by all the whites, AND their horrible mouth-contorting formation of words (listen how they sound as they MUST be contorting their rubber mouths to make those weird nuances - sort of like they've had Novacaine; it's stupid). From blacks there's no whining/contortion, just the same old rap crap by & large.
And today I still see no end to the '90s - musically or clothes or anything. I've seen glimmers of hope but mostly the pathetic, depressing, sad, '90s "styles" are STILL controlling the culture in 2005.