Power-pop
 

I just love that genre! Do you have any song recommendations?

Jimmy Eat World - The Middle


Cute Is What We Aim For - The Curse Of Curves

(sigh...)
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Re: Power-pop
 

Pop can be interpreted in a lot of ways, it can mean popular music, or musically commercial, especially by being tuneful, up-tempo, and repetitive..

Power Pop is more like Hannah Montana, Tess Tyler, or The Jonas Brothers. it usually incorporates a combination of musical devices such as crisp vocal harmonies, strong melodies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs.

What? Power Pop = Hard Rock + Pop (as in the Kinks or the Beatles, not Madonna)

Power-pop is a big genre. It can be:

The Beatles or The Kinks
Cute Is What We Aim For or We The Kings
Hannah Montana or Jonas Brothers

Like any other genres, it has good and bad music. Some artists are trying to appeal to everyone, some to teenagers, and some to 8-year olds (like the latter bands).

Aaaaaaah, yeah! Power Pop!

Classic and under-rated sounds from a great band.

I'll take the approach from the classic period of Power Pop:

September Gurls-Big Star
Starry Eyes-The Records
No Matter What-Badfinger
Go All the Way-The Raspberries
Ever Fallen in Love-Buzzcocks
Cruel to be Kind-Nick Lowe
Teenage Kicks-The Undertones

That's a short list for starters but that's off the top of my head.

The Producers:




Tinted Windows (power pop supergroup featuring members of Hanson, Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick and Fountains of Wayne):




Gary Myrick (without the Figures):

Some power pop I like.

I had thought about starting a power-pop thread but why not resurrect an old one instead?

Anyway to me, power pop all emanates from early period Beatles (at least the best power pop does). Sure, I can see the Kinks influence (and mod bands like the early Who in general), but you also have to look at other influences like the Hollies, Merseybeat bands in general, notably the Searchers, and American bands like the Turtles for example.

Of course, power pop really took off in the seventies and much of what became known as New Wave featured quite a bit of power pop. Anyway, won't bore you with the obvious masters (Raspberries, Badfinger, Big Star, et al).

I don't think these guys were mentioned yet and they had a pretty good following in their day.



Any of you have any fav power pop bands/songs?

Just to keep it going (or in case Dram comes back)

Eric Carmen was the quintessential McCartney clone (not only in songwriting, but also vocally) in The Raspberries.



Power pop ballad:

Marshall Crenshaw disliked the "power pop" label but his material often fell into that jangly territory, although the lion's share could be considered pop-rockabilly.

Yeah, the Raspberries were fantastic.

I'd consider Marshall Crenshaw power pop too though his sound was a bit different from the norm of that genre. Judging from his looks, I wonder if he was thinking more along the lines of Buddy Holly :laughing:

These guys weren't as successful as the Raspberries, but they too have their place in Power Pop lore

^ Nice pick, rubber soul - I'd forgotten all about that tune.

:laughing: Yes, he definitely looks similar to Holly - and Marshall started out by playing John Lennon in the Beatlemania stage musical, so maybe he was partial to those Lennonesque NHS round spectacles.

Adding some Flamin' Groovies here to the power pop pile:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI7-ol-TG2o

I always thought of the Flamin Groovies as more of a retro band than a power pop group, but yeah, I see the link as they were clearly influenced by Merseybeat. Incidentally, Shake Some Action rates as my number one album of 1976.

I know you remember this one, Ribbons

^ How could I forget!? That song was all over the place in the '80s. I get a kick out of the audience in that video. :laughing:

As for the Groovies, you're right - in early years they were more of a proto-punk/Stones-y band. Then after Chris Wilson joined and they recorded Shake Some Action etc. they became more power-poppish.

From their proto-punky days, here's a live performance of "Slow Death" (a song later covered by The Dictators). The Groovies had a hand in shaping both punk and power pop.

This is a bit more obscure. I think this may have been a studio band. I had the album and, overall, it's pretty mediocre.

But the opening track is a classic