Power Pop

Primary Stylistic Influences:

• Rock & Roll, Garage Rock, Hard Rock, The British Invasion (both the Merseybeat and the Mod aspects of it), Girl Groups, Rockabilly, Doo-wop, Jangle Pop

Secondary Stylistic Influences:

• Pop, Proto Punk, Arena Rock, Folk Rock, Garage Rock, later bands often influenced by Punk Rock, New Wave Music and Alternative Rock

"Power pop is what we play — what The Small Faces used to play, and the kind of pop The Beach Boys played in the days of "Fun, Fun, Fun" which I preferred."

—Pete Townshend

Power pop is The Beatles meets The Who.

That's literally all there is to it. Power pop emerged as a genre in the middle of The '60s, and its basic characteristics have remained unchanged since then. Power pop basically denotes bands that try to sound like a cross between The Beatles and The Who. There's an emphasis on strong melodies and heavy use of Beatles-styled vocal harmonies, but this is married to loud guitars and somewhat "aggressive" drumming borrowed from the Who (with the jangly 12-string guitar sound of The Byrds often thrown in for good measure). The result? Well, pop rock music with balls, so its popularity probably isn't that surprising.

Fittingly, the term "power pop" was 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 codify the genre, merging strong Beatle-ish melodies wivth 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 pretty much invented the style with the epic riffy "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night", which were the template for "I Can't Explain".

The '70s 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), The Raspberries, famous cult band Big Star, NRBQ, 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. 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).

Power pop dropped out of the spotlight after the end of the seventies due to the massive Hype Backlash against The Knack's smash hit "My Sharona". However, it continued to thrive underground and proved to be an important influence on Alternative Rock bands - many of the early alt-rock bands, such as R.E.M., played Jangle Pop and owed a massive debt to power pop, especially Big Star. The genre has still had its occasional moments of mainstream success, such as Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend", Gin Blossoms' "Hey Jealousy", Weezer's "Buddy Holly", Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom", and Walk the Moon's "Shut Up and Dance".

Pop Punk bands often claim to be power pop. Considering The Who inspired many of the first punk bands, this may not be surprising.

Do not confuse this term with anthemic adult-contemporary/pop songs and/or power ballads, which are often mislabeled as "power pop".

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Artists commonly associated with the genre:

• 20/20
• The All-American Rejects
• All Time Low
• Alt-J
• The Apples In Stereo
• Artful Dodger (not the British Garage producer, the 70s American band)
• Ash
• Asian Kung-Fu Generation
• Badfinger (probably the Trope Codifier for the genre)
• The Bangles
  • All Over the Place
• Bay City Rollers
• beabadoobee
• The Beat (Paul Collins' band, not to be confused with the British Two Tone band, called The English Beat in the US)
• Brendan Benson
• Best Coast
• Big Star
• Blue Ash
• Brad Jones (No, not that Brad Jones)
• Bread (Usually considered Soft Rock balladeers, but a lot of their album tracks and B-Side material qualify. "Down on My Knees" could easily pass for a Badfinger song)
• The Brobecks
• Brother Kite (also Shoegazing)
• The Cars (straddling the line between Power pop and New Wave)
• Cheap Trick
• The Click Five
• Elvis Costello
  • 1977 - My Aim Is True
  • 1978 - This Year's Model
• Cotton Mather
• Marshall Crenshaw
• The Dandy Warhols
• DAY6
• The dBs (also Jangle Pop)
• Del Amitri
• Dirty Looks (not the glam metal band)
• Dodgy (also Britpop)
• Enuff Z'Nuff (although they had the misfortune of being labeled as a Hair Metal band because that's what their label Atco Records said they were.)
• Everclear
• The Exploding Hearts
  • Guitar Romantic (2003)
• The Eyes
• Fastball
• The Flamin' Groovies, at least in the post-Roy Loney era.
• Ben Folds
• Fountains of Wayne
• Gin Blossoms
• Hanson
• Juliana Hatfield
• Hazel
• The Hudson Brothers (with their TV career and Teen Idol image they're usually remembered as a bubblegum band, but with their obvious love for The British Invasion they were much closer to Big Star than The Archies)
• The Jam
• Jellyfish
• Jimmy Eat World (from Bleed American onwards)
• Kaiser Chiefs
• Kenickie
• The Knack
• The La's
• The Lemon Twigs
• Nick Lowe
• Ludo
• Marcy Playground
• Material Issue
• Mod Fun
• Motion City Soundtrack
• The Monroes (a case of One-Hit Wonder)
• The Move
• Nada Surf
• The New Pornographers, particularly on their early albums.
• New Radicals
• NRBQ
• Ok Go
  • 2006 - "Here It Goes Again"
• One OK Rock
• The Outfield
• Parade of Lights
• Paramore
• Pezband
• Liz Phair, especially the songs where she's working with a full band. ("Supernova", "Rocket Boy" and the like.)
• The Pillows
• The Plimsouls
• The Pooh Sticks
• The Posies
• Ramones (though more often recognized as a Punk Rock band)
• The Raspberries (the first American band to hit it big with this style)
• The Records
• The Replacements
• The Romantics
• Jeff Rosenstock
• The Rubinoos (straddling the line between Power Pop and bubblegum)
• Todd Rundgren (his early band Nazz explicitly molded their sound on The Beatles and The Who, and his solo career has generally been at the junction of Power Pop and Progressive Rock)
• Shoes
• Silver Sun
• Skeleton Staff
• Sloan
• The Small Faces
• Smash Mouth
• The Smithereens
• Snow Patrol
• Spacehog (combined with alternative rock and glam rock)
• Sparks (one of their many styles, the one that first brought them popularity in 1974-1975)
• Spin Doctors
• Rick Springfield
• The Spongetones
• Squeeze
• Billy Squier
• Super Furry Animals
• Supergrass
• The Supernaturals (also Britpop)
• Matthew Sweet
• Switchfoot
• Tally Hall
• Teenage Fanclub
• Third Eye Blind
• Tommy Tutone
• The Tubes (a style adopted after The Completion Backward Principle)
• Dwight Twilley
• The Unswept
• Urge Overkill
• Walk the Moon (especially amplified on Talking is Hard; also Dance-Punk and New Wave Revival)
• Weezer (also Alternative Rock, Pop Punk, and, [at least on The Blue Album and Pinkerton], Emo)
• Wheatus
• The Who (Trope Namer)
  • 1965 - My Generation
  • 1966 - A Quick One
  • 1967 - The Who Sellout
• XTC
• Zumpano (a precursor to The New Pornographers)