Power pop

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Power Pop
Stylistic origins:	Pop, Rock n' Roll, Beat music, Rhythm and Blues, Garage rock, Pub rock (UK)
Cultural origins:	1960s British and American Pop
Typical instruments:	Standard Drum Set - Electric Guitar - Keyboard - Bass Guitar - Synthesizer
Mainstream popularity:	Medium
Other topics
List of notable power pop songs & List of power pop musicians

Power pop is a musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop music.

The music is characterized by strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are kept to a minimum, and blues elements are largely downplayed. Recordings tend to display production values that lean toward compression and a forceful drum beat, most often in a dance vein. Instruments usually include one or more electric guitars, electric bass guitar, a drum kit, and perhaps electric keyboards or synthesizers.

Badfinger's "No Matter What" (1970), The Raspberries' "Go All The Way" (1972), and The Knack's "My Sharona" (1979) are some of the most commercially successful singles of the power pop genre.

While its cultural impact has waxed and waned over the decades, it is among rock's most enduring subgenres.

1 Formative years: 1960s to early 1970s
2 Commercial peak: late '70s - early '80s
- 2.1 USA
- 2.2 United Kingdom
3 Contemporary power pop: 1980s to 2000s
4 See also
5 External link

[edit] Formative years: 1960s to early 1970s

Pete Townshend of The Who coined the term power pop in a 1967 interview, in which he said "Power pop is what we play". As early as 1965, the Everly Brothers were playing music that can be called power pop. The band's I'll See Your Light displayed jangling guitars and an oblique harmonic approach that built upon the innovations of The Beatles and The Byrds. Those groups, along with The Who, are often cited as the progenitors of power pop.

The Who, inspired by the melodicism of The Beatles and the driving rhythms of American R&B, put out several songs in their early mod phase (1965-1966) that can be considered the first true power pop songs: I Can't Explain, The Kids Are Alright, I'm a Boy, Happy Jack, So Sad About Us, and in 1967, Pictures of Lily. These songs are propelled by Keith Moon's aggressive drumming and Pete Townshend's distinctive power chords, and have strong melodies and euphonic harmonies. The Beatles took inspiration from The Who's contemporary singles and released hard-edged, yet melodic, songs such as as Paperback Writer and Day Tripper in the mid 1960s. Many groups that arose in the wake of The Beatles' success were important in the evolution of the power pop style, such as the Left Banke, The Beau Brummels,The Hollies, the Knickerbockers and The Zombies.

Modern power pop gained momentum in the late 1960s with the first recordings by the British group Badfinger (although at this time, the musical style was not yet classified as power pop). Badfinger singles such as No Matter What, Baby Blue and Day After Day, (all recorded in 1970 and 1971), were the template for the power pop sound that followed in the late 1970s.

In the early 1970s, the form was further codified by the work of The Raspberries (who may have been the first band to earn the power pop appellation, in a mid-1970's article in Rolling Stone.

At this stage, bands performing music that was later to be labelled power pop were nearly all American. The first albums by Big Star and The Raspberries are considered among the genre's essential recordings. Other notable acts at this time were Blue Ash, Artful Dodger, The Records, Dwight Twilley, Paul Collins' Beat and Todd Rundgren. Although Rundgren and The Raspberries achieved some chart success during the period, Big Star spent years relegated to cult status, earning a wider name only after being extolled in the 1980s by bands like R.E.M. and The Replacements.

Regardless of chart success, many of these early-1970s bands who incorporated British Invasion influences in their music were considered out-of-fashion in a rock music world dominated by soft rock artists like The Carpenters, singer-songwriters such as Carole King, and hard rock groups like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.

[edit] Commercial peak: late '70s - early '80s

[edit] USA

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, spurred on by the success of new wave and punk rock (music which was similarly driving and stripped-down), power pop enjoyed its most prolific period, with American groups like dB's, Cheap Trick, The Atlantics, The Knack, The Romantics, 20/20, Paul Collins Beat and Shoes. These late-1970s bands were heavily influenced by early-1970s bands like Badfinger and The Raspberries, rather than the British Invasion bands that were the genre's original influences.

These new power pop bands favored a leaner, punchier, more punkish attack than their early-1970s counterparts. Perhaps the most successful power pop single of all-time, The Knack's My Sharona, spent six weeks in the number one position of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979. Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" was another successful power pop single of the era. Even the early material of GG Allin and The Jabbers was a mix of power pop and hardcore punk.

[edit] United Kingdom

The term power pop, as used in the UK, referred to a somewhat different style of music that that of the USA. It was commonly applied to British groups such as The Jam, which was the most popular group in Britain for several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Other British bands labelled as power pop included Buzzcocks, The Vapors, The Jags, and The Chords. Many of these groups have also been described as mod revival, punk rock, or new wave. Lacking the influence of American pioneers such as Big Star and The Raspberries, these bands were inspired by 1960s beat music/British Invasion groups (particularly The Who, The Kinks, and The Beatles), and the energy and aesthetics of the contemporary punk movement, speeding up the tempo of their music.

Other UK artists of the late 1970s commonly identified as power pop were the new wave groups XTC and Elvis Costello & The Attractions. They played driving, melodic music, but neither group sported the mod image or overt 1960s influence of The Jam and their followers, nor were they musically influenced by American bands like Big Star and The Raspberries.

A handful of successful bands in the UK did boast the traditional power pop sound as inspired by The Raspberries and Big Star, most notably The Records and Bram Tchaikovsky. Singles from these groups, such as John Wicks And The Records' Starry Eyes, and Bram Tchaikovsky's Girl Of My Dreams, rivaled or even surpassed their American counterparts in capturing the essential elements of power pop. These bands were far more commercially successful in the United States than in their homeland.

Additionally, the American new wave group Blondie, which had a massive following in Britain, was often labelled power pop in the UK press.

[edit] Contemporary power pop: 1980s to 2000s

In the 1980s and 1990s, power pop continued as a creatively viable — if commercially limited — genre, as artists such as Marshall Crenshaw (whose first two albums are considered classics of the genre), Matthew Sweet, The Bongos, Teenage Fanclub, Material Issue, The Posies and Jellyfish drew inspiration from Big Star, the Beatles, and glam rock groups of the early 1970s like T. Rex and Sweet.

In the mid-1990s through the 2000s, power pop flourished in the underground, with acts such as The Shazam, Sloan and You Am I, and underground record labels such as Not Lame Recordings, Kool Kat Musik and Jam Recordings. The sound made a mainstream appearance with the success of Weezer and Ozma, precursors to acts such as Rooney & Luzer.

Some 1990s rock acts, such as Nirvana and Oasis, bore unmistakable signs of power pop influence. The 1996 Stone Temple Pilots single "Lady Picture Show" seems to be built upon the same musical foundation as Badfinger's 1973 single "Apple Of My Eye." Power pop traits are prominently displayed by groups such as Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Fountains of Wayne, Ozma, Stingray Green and The Dandy Warhols.

Power pop influence is also found in the music of pop punk bands like blink-182, Tsar, and hellogoodbye. In June, 2006, The Methadones released an album of power pop covers entitled 21st Century Power Pop Riot. The album features covers of songs by Cheap Trick, Paul Collins' Beat, Gary Glitter, Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, The Pointed Sticks and others.

The influence of popular British power pop bands from the late 1970s and early 1980s can be found in contemporary British bands such as the Futureheads, Maxïmo Park, Farrah, Duels, Special Needs, Razorlight, the Rifles and Semion.