The lights are on
I've been on a bender of this stuff for a while so I figured I'd take a shot and see if there are at least one or two of you weirdos who like it too. I feel so alone! Anyways...
If you have no clue what the hell I'm talking about, power pop, in essence, is made up of traditional pop song compositions that predominantly feature catchy melodies and clean studio production with the guitar usually taking precedence, be it jangly or distorted.
That's the genre in the nutshell and here are some bands that make it up:
Cheap Trick
Put power pop in the dictionary and a picture of these guys will most likely be next to it. While they're probably most known for their mid-career dabbling in power ballads and Elvis covers (not that there's anything wrong with that mind you), their two most recent albums are ace. Their self-titled debut is a classic that takes on a much darker tone than anything else they did afterward. Highly recommended.
The Cars
Similar to the artist above, the Cars had a debut album that is widely considered the best of their career that spanned six albums. They followed it up with Candy-O which is a decent release in its own right. Panorama was a weak departure, but they followed it up with two fine albums in Shake It Up and Heartbreak City.
Fountains of Wayne
Although expected, it's unfortunate that most only know them for the 2003 single Stacy's Mom. Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood make up one of the more underrated modern song writing duos
Weezer
Rivers Cuomo has built an empire on the foundation of his outstanding work on the Blue Album and Pinkerton. Sadly, the preceding albums have ranged from disappointing to unbelievably terrible.
Some bands that fit to a lesser extent- The Beatles: While I'm not a fan, they set much of the standards for the genre- The Kinks: Also important to the genre. I'm more partial to the efforts of the Davies brothers- The Raconteurs: Every song on Broken Boy Soldiers fits the mold perfectly- Hüsker Dü: A power pop band masquerading as a hardcore punk outfit with every album starting with Flip Your Wig- Green Day: Warning is the only album of theirs that could fit comfortably within the power pop canon, but it's still a good one
Please, feel free to recommend your favorites. I'm always on the lookout for new power pop to try.
Wow the only bands I can say I remotely like that are current with a ton of pop mainstream feel are Creed and Nickelback.Other than that, I could really care less for too much cheese.I used to be big into Staind also but the whole whiny lyrics and lack of innovation as of late grew stale.I really cant move past their first two albums dysfunction and break the cycle.Oh and Green days album Dookie has pop punk written all over it.They loathe the title but really they are.If you want an overdose of pop rock listen to Aerosmith.By far one of the best to do it in my opinion.
Despite the fact that I listen to quite a bit of music, I really fail at categorizing certain artists to very specific musical genres. Anyway some Power Pop I like (well, there goes a blog post).
Big Star--to me, the quintessential American Power Pop band, and the Black Sabbath of the genre. It's amazing that no one in the era even wanted to sound like Big Star, but now their influence is felt in most Pop bands that use guitars. You can't go wrong with pretty much anything they've done, just jump in.
Badfinger--Check out that album No Dice. A rare contemporary of Big Star. Not as good, but still pretty strong and nearly as underrated.
The Undertones--One of the best examples of a Punk band that really just played supercharged Pop music. Catchy as hell, and they have that adolescent spirit and a great sense of fun. If you've never heard "Teenage Kicks", you've never lived.
Teenage Fanclub--Power Pop bands would be lucky to have one great songwriter, the Fannies have three. Some people call them the heir apparent to Big Star, and while I don't think they're quite at that level, they're remarkably consistent and I pretty much like/love everything I've heard from them. Most recommend Bandwagonesque, I say go with Grand Prix.
Green Day is a really good singles band. I still listen to Fountains Of Wayne about four hours every year (though the older I get I'm starting to like Ivy a lot more). The Kinks were better than The Beatles dog
The dB's--Yo, "Big Brown Eyes" is the jam. So is most of their debut record.
then there's the Posies, the Feelies blahblabla
A couple of years ago I listened to Children Of Nuggets and discovered LOTS of great Power Pop bands, check that comp out.
NEVAR FORGET
Jimmy Eat World's "Futures" is some of the most saccharine arena pop rock; so addicting. And if you're going to talk about power pop then you have to include bands like Journey and Bon Jovi, both of whom dominated the airwaves in the 80's with the latter still unfortunately going strong. You can also add Def Leppard to that list as well.
fleshballoon:The Kinks were better than The Beatles dog
Hello new best friend
What about Paramour?
Oh power pop. You make rock n' roll fun!
You should read my Blog. This week: once again, a Poetry JAM!
Is Bowling For Soup declared power pop? If so, I like Bowling For Soup.
...in the shower.
-STRAFE-: Is Bowling For Soup declared power pop? If so, I like Bowling For Soup.
Sure why not
It dosen't matter what they are called. Bowling for soup's awesome. Look's like everyone else has already put my fav's down.
Kill'em with kindness, it's a slow painful death.
Some lesser well known "Power-Pop-ish" Groups Are:
Red Car Wire
The Cab
NeverShoutNever
Motion City Soundtrack
HelloGoodbye
All Time Low
Every Avenue
The Maine
Cash Cash
The White Tie Affair
I've Got A Lot More, But This Is Just A Sampling. If You Have Any Questions About These Bands, Or Other
Bands, Don't Hesitate To Ask. :)
He's right, Green Day isn't really power pop, they're more pop-punk. Green Day for life!