re: Power Pop: An Intro

The Beat - "Rock & Roll Girl" -- on American Bandstand

The Diodes - "I'm Tired of Waking Up Tired" (live)

The Nerves - "When You Find Out"

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the new pornographers

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Letter From an Occupant

love power pop... i'd love to cover a big star song sometime

Grand Funk was ab-so-fricking-lutely NOT power pop

See, and I view Big Star as trying to recapture the pop of the Beatles sound. They kind of predate power pop. They were just the Beatles.

Badfinger predates them anyway

The sound power pop goes back to the '60s (as does the term, but let's not go there) and that's what matters.

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Back in the day everyone knew the song's I listed

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Everybody knew Tammy Wynette too but that doesn't make her power pop

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If you've listened to any Grand Funk, You know that everything they play is played with power.

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By that logic Black Sabbath would be power pop

Wikipedia: "Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are usually kept to a minimum, and blues elements are largely downplayed."

Yeah, you don't want to go back to the term "power pop" because it was used by the Who to describe thier sound, and they aren't thought of as power pop. I don't view the 1960s bands as power pop because they were simply pop at the time (and Badfinger, while great, were also contemporaries of the Beatles).

The genre of power pop was an attempt to recapture the Beatle sound. It is, in a way, a backwards looking genre. Of course, it looks back to bands that were amazingly good.

Then again, I'm breaking my personal rule to never get involved in a genre definitional debate. If you want Badfinger and the Beatles to be power pop, knock yourself out. All genres have slippery definitions. I'm just telling you what I mean by power pop.

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Yeah, you don't want to go back to the term "power pop" because it was used by the Who to describe thier sound, and they aren't thought of as power pop.

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From what I understand, this meaning of the term is still sometimes used in England.

For whatever reason, the meaning of the term "power pop" shifted in the US, from describing The Who and The Move to what might be called the hard folk-rock sound (note that Townshend in the Wikipedia quote is essentially talking about this style, Beach Boys and Beatles, as being the origin of power pop). And the Who have some tracks -- such as the classic anti-smoking commercial "Little Willy" -- that could be considered power pop in the Yank sense.

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I don't view the 1960s bands as power pop because they were simply pop at the time (and Badfinger, while great, were also contemporaries of the Beatles)

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I really don't understand this attitude. It's kind of like saying Chinatown is film noir, but Out Of The Past isn't. Power pop existed in the 1960s. Some of my very favorite examples of the genre, such as the already posted "What Am I Gonna Do" by The Dovers and "Going All The Way" by The Squires, are from that glorious period of 1965-6.

If you think "No Matter What" is not power pop I really don't know what else to say. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

I dont know the definition of Power Pop, but I know it when I hear it...

It's funny that it has never been a huge genre, but every generation has its share of great bands... and at its best, may be my favorite sound...

Mayflies USA - The Greatest Thing

Broken West - Down in the Valley

Velvet Crush - Why Not Your Baby (cover of Gene Clark tune, with more of a country slant... but a good power pop band)