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Pop & Beat: 1960s

Power pop is a musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop music. more...

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The music is characterized by strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are kept to a minimum, and blues elements are largely downplayed. Recordings tend to display production values that lean toward compression and a forceful drum beat, most often in a dance vein. Instruments usually include one or more electric guitars, electric bass guitar, a drum kit, and perhaps electric keyboards or synthesizers.

Badfinger's "No Matter What" (1970), The Raspberries' "Go All The Way" (1972), and The Knack's "My Sharona" (1979) are some of the most commercially successful singles of the power pop genre.

While its cultural impact has waxed and waned over the decades, it is among rock's most enduring subgenres.

Formative years: 1960s to early 1970s

Pete Townshend of The Who coined the term power pop in a 1967 interview, in which he said "Power pop is what we play". As early as 1965, the Everly Brothers were playing music that can be called power pop. The band's I'll See Your Light displayed jangling guitars and an oblique harmonic approach that built upon the innovations of The Beatles and The Byrds. Those groups, along with The Who, are often cited as the progenitors of power pop.

The Who, inspired by the melodicism of The Beatles and the driving rhythms of American R&B, put out several songs in their early mod phase (1965-1966) that can be considered the first true power pop songs: I Can't Explain, The Kids Are Alright, I'm a Boy, Happy Jack, So Sad About Us, and in 1967, Pictures of Lily. These songs are propelled by Keith Moon's aggressive drumming and Pete Townshend's distinctive power chords, and have strong melodies and euphonic harmonies. The Beatles took inspiration from The Who's contemporary singles and released hard-edged, yet melodic, songs such as as Paperback Writer and Day Tripper in the mid 1960s. Many groups that arose in the wake of The Beatles' success were important in the evolution of the power pop style, such as the Left Banke, The Beau Brummels,The Hollies, the Knickerbockers and The Zombies.

Modern power pop gained momentum in the late 1960s with the first recordings by the British group Badfinger (although at this time, the musical style was not yet classified as power pop). Badfinger singles such as No Matter What, Baby Blue and Day After Day, (all recorded in 1970 and 1971), were the template for the power pop sound that followed in the late 1970s.

In the early 1970s, the form was further codified by the work of The Raspberries (who may have been the first band to earn the power pop appellation, in a mid-1970's article in Rolling Stone. Although Rundgren and The Raspberries achieved some chart success during the period, Big Star spent years relegated to cult status, earning a wider name only after being extolled in the 1980s by bands like R.E.M. and The Replacements.