I'm going to take this thread in a couple different directions. First, I'm going to give Brian Wilson credit as one of the genre's initiators. After all, he came up with the idea of putting together doo-wop harmonies and Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll. Pete Townshend of the Who (who coined the term "power pop") mentioned this song in particular as an early example.
I'm also going to probably offend a lot of diehard Police fans by calling them power pop. But when you look at all the melodic hooks… "Roxanne," "Can't Stand Losing You," "Message in a Bottle," etc. Those are basically great pop songs dressed up with some reggae/punk/new wave instrumentation.
And if we really stretch our definition of power pop, wouldn't pretty much any '70s punk band be considered power pop? You've got the simple chords and the catchy hooks played much louder.
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