"Oh my God, what's that
song? I'm in love with that song!" -
The Replacements, "
Alex Chilton"
Just what is
power pop? Well, most recently, it's been bands like
Sloan and
Superdrag,
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and
Weezer. Because
mainstream pop has deviated into the
manufactured pop (or "
studio pop") of
Britney Spears et al., and the
angst pop of bands like
Linkin Park,
power pop is now predominantly in the
indie rock arena. And while there is a lot of
indie pop that isn't power pop (like
Magnetic Fields and
The Microphones), there's another serious strain that is (like, say, most
Yo La Tengo and new bands like
Saturday Looks Good To Me). There are also occassional power-poppers that slip into the bigtime, like the aforementioned
Weezer and
Maroon 5. Confused yet?
While the roots of power pop run from
jump blues through the
British Invasion, the first band to really get called power pop was
Big Star.
A band from
Memphis, Big Star was playing Southern-tinged rock in the early '70s, when bands like
Led Zeppelin and
Pink Floyd dominated the charts. Largely ignored at the time, Big Star would go on to be one of those bands that no one listened to at the time, but who influenced a generation.
Mainly a songwriting collaboration between
Chris Bell and
Alex Chilton (formerly of the
Box Tops, where he had a hit with "
The Letter" at 16),
Big Star combined glowing harmonies with
Velvet Underground covers and the driving power of Southern rock and roll with the beauty of
Beatles-esque pop.
Around this time,
Jonathan Richman started his band, the
Modern Lovers. Best known for their hit "
Roadrunner," the Modern Lovers also included a young
Jerry Harrison, now better known for his work in the
Talking Heads. Richman's music (or Richman himself) has been featured in movies like
Repo Man and
There's Something About Mary, and
Roadrunner was one of the songs covered by the
Sex Pistols at their last show ever.
The lines between what would become punk and what would become power pop were blurred at the beginning, with bands like the
Ramones essentially updating '60s
bubblegum pop (so called because of the
1910 Fruitgum Company) with more energy and subversive lyrics. However, the essential distinction between punk and power pop is that power pop is generally not as
nihilistic as punk. In the current climate, however, bands like
Blink 182 get labeled
pop punk for coming from a tattooed background, instead of being called
power pop based on their music.
C'est la vie.
Power pop reached its commercial peak with a band from
Chicago called
Cheap Trick. Best known for their incredibly successful album "
Live at Budokan," Cheap Trick had a massive run of hits, including "
I Want You to Want Me," and "
Surrender." The "cheap trick" incidently, was guitarist
Rick Neilson's close resemblence to nurse killer
Richard Speck.
Power pop truly arrived in the '80s, with the anger of punk tapering off into the commercial success of
New Wave. Bands like
Talking Heads, the
Pretenders, and the
Soft Boys all had hits on the radio and
MTV. The Soft Boys, including guitarist
Robyn Hitchcock, were emblematic of the power pop scene's ultimate emergence with their revamped psychedelics on the album "
Underwater Moonlight."
And then, there's
The Cars. Now famed as a producer, including Weezer's "
Green Album,"
Rick Ocasek's band pulled nine top ten hits off of their 1978 debut. If you want to hear power pop in your head, just think of "
Just What I Needed."
For better or worse,
grunge killed power pop's mainstream (along with hair metal). Bands like
Superdrag and
The Figgs were picked up then dumped by major labels in a scramble for "alternative." From there, it's been a long road back for lovers of power pop.
Most of the progress has been made on the independent front, with artists like Ted Leo garnering critical respect and respectable sales. Still, there have been breakthrough artists like Weezer and
The Flaming Lips who have reminded millions that pop can still pack a punch.
Important albums to be added in a seperate entry.