For those times when you need to create a DropDownList for a range of Years, you can easily do that through "Enumerable.Range". The sample code below will create a list that ranges from 1900 to the next most Current Year and then Sort that list in Descending Order.

YearRangeDropDownList.cs

// NOTE: This requires a USING clause for System.Web.Mvc
var selectListItems = new List<SelectListItem>();

// Add Default Selection
selectListItems.Add(new SelectListItem
{
    Text = "-- Make a Selection --",
    Value = "0",
    Selected = true
});

// Get the Value of Next Year (i.e. This Year + 1)
var nextYear = DateTime.Now.AddYears(1).Year;

// Build a List of Years based on the Range from 1900 to Current Year + 1
var yearList = 	new SelectList(Enumerable.Range(1900, nextYear - 1900 + 1));

// Order Year List Descending
selectListItems.AddRange(yearList.OrderByDescending(y => y.Text));