History Main / PowerPop

* Music/TheRaspberries

* Music/ToddRundgren (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 ProgressiveRock)

Power pop dropped out of the spotlight after the end of the seventies due to the massive HypeBacklash against The Knack's smash hit "My Sharona". However, it continued to thrive underground and proved to be an important influence on AlternativeRock bands - many of the early alt-rock bands, such as Music/{{REM}}, played JanglePop and owed a massive debt to power pop, especially Music/BigStar. The genre has still had its occasional moments of mainstream success, such as Music/MatthewSweet's "Girlfriend", Music/GinBlossoms' "Hey Jealousy", Music/{{Weezer}}'s "Buddy Holly", and Walk the Moon's "Shut Up and Dance".

* Music/{{Weezer}} (also Alternative Rock, PopPunk, and, [at least on ''Music/WeezerTheBlueAlbum'' and ''Music/{{Pinkerton}}''], [[EmoMusic Emo]])

* Music/{{Weezer}} (also Alternative Rock, PopPunk, and [at least on ''Music/WeezerTheBlueAlbum'' and''Music/{{Pinkerton}}''] [[EmoMusic Emo]])

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

* Music/{{Badfinger}} ("No Matter What" is probably the TropeCodifier for the genre)

* Music/BrotherKite

Power pop dropped out of the spotlight after the end of the seventies but continued to thrive underground and proved to be an important influence on AlternativeRock bands - many of the early alt-rock bands, such as Music/{{REM}}, played JanglePop and owed a massive debt to power pop, especially Music/BigStar. The genre has still had its occasional moments of mainstream success, such as Music/MatthewSweet's "Girlfriend", Music/GinBlossoms' "Hey Jealousy", Music/{{Weezer}}'s "Buddy Holly", and Walk the Moon's "Shut Up and Dance".

* Music/BrendanBenson

* Music/NickLowe

* Music/TheUnswept

* The Nazz and Music/ToddRundgren solo

* Music/ToddRundgren (His early band Nazz very much molded themselves on The Beatles and The Who, but he's also dipped into the genre from time to time in his solo career)

* Music/ToddRundgren

* Music/{{Badfinger}}

* Music/JimmyEatWorld (from ''Bleed American'' and afterwards)

TheSeventies represented the decade where Power pop came into its own as a genre, represented by artists like Badfinger (who enjoyed the patronage of Music/TheBeatles), The Raspberries, famous [[CultClassic cult band]] Music/BigStar, NRBQ, [[Music/ToddRundgren Nazz and Todd Rundgren]]. The genre also reached the peak of its mainstream popularity in the late seventies, represented chiefly by Music/CheapTrick and others like 20/20, Music/TheCars, and The Knack. The Knack provided the genre's biggest hit with "My Sharona", but they suffered a huge backlash and a "Knuke the Knack" campaign over the perceived misogyny of their lyrics. 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 Music/TheJam, Music/{{Squeeze}}, the Music/{{Buzzcocks}}, Music/ElvisCostello, Music/{{Blondie}}, Music/{{XTC}}, and Music/NickLowe (most of these bands were [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]], PunkRock or early AlternativeRock, with Squeeze and Nick Lowe being the closest to bona-fide Power Pop).

That's literally all there is to it. Power pop emerged as a genre in the middle of TheSixties, and its basic characteristics have remained unchanged since then. Power pop basically denotes bands that try to sound like a cross between Music/TheBeatles and Music/TheWho. 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 Music/TheByrds often thrown in for good measure). The result? Well, pop music with balls, so its popularity probably isn't that surprising.

+ RockAndRoll, GarageRock, HardRock, UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion (both the Merseybeat and the Mod aspects of it), GirlGroup, {{Rockabilly}}, {{Doowop}}, JanglePop

+ RockAndRoll, UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion (both the Merseybeat and the Mod aspects of it), {{Pop}}, ProtoPunk, HardRock

+ ArenaRock, FolkRock, GarageRock, later bands often influenced by PunkRock, NewWaveMusic and AlternativeRock

* The Unswept

* Music/{{Sparks}} (one of their [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly many]] styles, the one that first brought them popularity in 1974-1975)