Power Pop: Difference between revisions

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The term "power pop" was, perhaps fittingly enough, coined by Pete Townshend in a 1967 interview (quoted above) to describe his band's style. Their early singles like "I Can't Explain", "The Kids Are Alright" and "Substitute", helped [[Trope Codifier|codify]] the genre, merging strong Beatle-ish melodies with driving R&B-inspired rhythms and massive Marshall-stacked guitars. The Beatles themselves released harder-edged singles that helped inspire the genre, such as "Day Tripper" and "Paperback Writer", and [[The Kinks]] joined in the fun with the [[Epic Riff]]y "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night".

[[The Seventies]] represented the decade where '''Power Pop''' came into its own as a genre, represented by artists like Badfinger (who enjoyed the patronage of [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]]), The Raspberries, famous [[Cult Classic|cult band]] [[Big Star (band)|Big Star]], NRBQ, [[Todd Rundgren|Nazz and Todd Rundgren]]. The genre also reached the peak of its mainstream popularity in the late seventies, represented chiefly by [[Cheap Trick]] and others like 20/20, [[The Cars]], and The Knack. The Knack provided the genre's biggest hit with "My Sharona", but they're a massive [[Your Mileage May Vary]] within the genre - they suffered a huge backlash and a "Knuke the Knack" campaign over the perceived misogyny of their lyrics. Thanks to dumb British journalists who tended to use "power pop" as a catchall term, lots of bands that weren't really power pop got lumped into the genre, such as The Jam, [[Squeeze]], The Buzzcocks, [[Elvis Costello]], [[Blondie]], [[XTC]] and [[Nick Lowe]] (most of these bands were [[New Wave]], [[Punk Rock]] or early [[Alternative Rock]], with Squeeze and Nick Lowe being the closest to bona-fide Power Pop).

[[The Seventies]] represented the decade where '''Power Pop''' came into its own as a genre, represented by artists like Badfinger (who enjoyed the patronage of [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]]), The Raspberries, famous [[Cult Classic|cult band]] [[Big Star (band)|Big Star]], NRBQ, [[Todd Rundgren|Nazz and Todd Rundgren]]. The genre also reached the peak of its mainstream popularity in the late seventies, represented chiefly by [[Cheap Trick]] and others like 20/20, [[The Cars]], and The Knack. The Knack provided the genre's biggest hit with "My Sharona", but they're a massive [[Your Mileage May Vary]] within the genre - they suffered a huge backlash and a "Knuke the Knack" campaign over the perceived misogyny of their lyrics. Thanks to dumb British journalists who tended to use "power pop" as a catchall term, lots of bands that weren't really power pop got lumped into the genre, such as The Jam, [[Squeeze]], The Buzzcocks, [[Elvis Costello]], [[Blondie (band)|Blondie]], [[XTC]] and [[Nick Lowe]] (most of these bands were [[New Wave]], [[Punk Rock]] or early [[Alternative Rock]], with Squeeze and Nick Lowe being the closest to bona-fide Power Pop).

Power pop dropped out of the spotlight after the end of the seventies but continued to thrive underground and proved to be an important influence on [[Alternative Rock]] bands - the first wave of alt-rock bands led by [[REM]] were largely jangle-pop and owed a massive debt to power pop, especially [[Big Star (band)|Big Star]]. The genre has still had its occasional moments of mainstream success, such as [[Matthew Sweet]]'s "Girlfriend", [[Gin Blossoms]]' "Hey Jealousy" or [[Weezer]]'s "Buddy Holly".