The Best 50 Powerpop Albums according to RYM

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Well, I got a "Various Artists" album recently, and it's more like ? and the Mysterians, for the most part...

Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.
Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro)

Geir will be along any minute to define what the Various in Various Artists actually means

What's not to like? They just had such an enormous musical palette, such a rich, baroque, sophisticated way of stringing chords together and fitting melodies over them, making them rock. So evocative too

Well, they've never rocked me. At all. Or evoked much anything, either. They mostly just hit me as restrained, I guess. And I can think of scores of '70s rock bands who -- to my ears anyway -- incorporated a wider scope of music. I think they're fine -- got a reissue CD of the first two albums last year, first time I'd listened to them in a long while, and they're still pleasant. "September Girls" is world-class pretty; I always thought that. But the albums have never "given" much to me. And fair or not, I guess I hold their status as Point A of powerpop-without-power (and their inflated reputation, compared to tons of '70s band who hit me as catchier and more deserving) against them.

Actually, I mentioned above that nobody would ever consider R.E.M. a powerpop band (despite playing melodic guitar music), but now I'm wondering whether there were, in fact, Big Star comparisons early on, when they released their first single and EP (which I like btw) -- They were Southerners, after all, playing an artsy, sort of introverted kind of pop. Doesn't sound powerpop to me, but I'm not everybody.

Powerpop songs are supposed to be performed by the people who wrote them.

Can you please link to the rulebook where you dig up these idiotic regulations? I'd love to see it sometime. Anyway, agree about Selena Gomez's album and some Miley counting as powerpop. Demi Lovato, too.

the power pop archetype is the sad, lonely guy making really pretty music. (And maybe this is going too far, but the archetypal power pop FAN is a lonely guy who escapes into pretty music.)

See also: What I said upthread about lots of emo being powerpop.

And oh yeah, I wanna second the nomination for Pointed Sticks, who were great. (A couple other Vancouver bands from the same time -- for sure the Modernettes, maybe the Young Canadians -- might also fit here.)

Interesting. I was watching a video of one of the Nickelodeon Youth recently & I had a strange thought: If this song had come out c. 1980 and they spent hours making their hair look like they never touch it except perhaps with a weedeater, this could be a cult powerpop item, not unlike Holly & the Italians.

Btw, just posted elsewhere this morning about a very catchy early Bryan Adams LP; interesting, in light of this thread, that the Rolling Stone Record Guide compared his sound then to the Byrds. (Tom Petty got that comparison a lot, too, obviously, and later so did R.E.M.! Also worth mentioning that Adams had a few years before been in the glam pop-rock band Sweeney Todd, with fellow Vancouverite Nick Gilder.) A permalink:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

"Jangle-pop" might in fact be a better description of at least half of what I listed

Yeah, that's how I'd probably classify a lot of music mentioned on this thread in general. (R.E.M. included.) Guess it comes down to whether you prefer your powerpop jangly or crunchy. Nine times out of ten, I'll take the latter.

Crunchy sorta boogie rock was performed on occasion by Badfinger, Big Star, the Raspberries AND the Beatles!

Having a crunchy rock number or two up yer sleeve was virtually de rigueur for your 70s power poppers

This has been a really interesting thread for me. I spend a great deal of time collecting, listening to, and, yes, thinking about power-pop. Probably everyone who writes about music figures he or she has at least one great book that's just waiting for them to write it; for at least the last decade, I've been thinking that mine would be on power-pop.

I've concluded from this thread that there are clearly at least two strains of power-pop (probably many more, akin to PapaWheelie's groupings, but two for sure): the jangly, wistful, achin'-to-be stuff I love, and the crunchy, more power-chorded stuff Xhuxk prefers. They're both key. And both Xhuxk and I probably have to accept that Big Star (for Xhuxk) and the Knack (for me) are just as valid as the half we love.

The Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus tracks posted above are both quite good. But I just don't connect to them emotionally like the songs I listed. I'm sure there are lots of what ThusSangFreud called extra-musical biases at work there--maybe I can only make that connection if it's sad, beautiful-loser types (often, though not by any means always, closer to my own age)doing the singing. I don't know. But I don't get much more than detached appreciation of how good they are from either.

Do it, clemenza! I would buy a copy. If you happen to have yellow pills vol 4, i'd be curious to know whether track #10 falls into the "wistful" or "crunchy" camp.

One other thought I meant to add. Geir says a lot of stuff that's...outlandish. And he sets himself up as an easy target. But a few times on this thread, I found myself in 75% agreement with something he'd say. The problem is, he frequently says things in such absolute, sweeping terms, when a little tempering would sound so much more reasonable. Example: "Power doesn't have anything to do with power pop." I think I know what he's trying to say, and if I'm right then I agree with him, but here's a better way to say it: power is not a pre-condition of power-pop. To me, that statement is much easier to defend.

A lot of '90s and '00s bands have blurred the lines between the two strains, DM3 probably to the greatest extent.

I see where the Selena Gomez/Miley Cyrus poster is coming from and am having trouble coming up with a snappy "X Y and Z are why that's not power pop" rebuttal. That's going to take a little thinking.

I know what you mean...I was trying to think my way through a reasoned rebuttal, and I got tired and gave up!

I can see Selena Gomez, Victoria Justice, Drake Bell, etc. getting a Powerpop classification. Bell in particular shows a healthy Mod punch at times. Some of it might fall in the Bubblegum subgroup, but I generally think of Bubblegum as lacking the 'power' component - so...

I've had a thought. Maybe you cannot really define powerpop.

...but its fun to try.

TSF: the Pop Files' "Carolina"--don't know it. I'll search it out tonight and report back. Your query makes me think it might split the difference.

Thanks! haha, pop flies, actually. an ancient typo that has promulgated through time...

Geir says a lot of stuff that's...outlandish. And he sets himself up as an easy target. But a few times on this thread, I found myself in 75% agreement with something he'd say.

It happens to the best of us.

Pop Flies???? No way!

Pop Flies???? No way!

catchy, geddit? i'm dyin' here.

Now I'm wondering what other mis-labeled music has been in my collection for years.

I understand the Pop Flies' version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" is Da Bomb.

Some of it might fall in the Bubblegum subgroup, but I generally think of Bubblegum as lacking the 'power' component - so...

Christgau actually invented a perfect genre name for power-packed bubblegum, in a review of the first Sweet album in 1973: "Is heavy bubblegum bazooka-rock?" I've borrowed it a few times since, but I don't know if anybody else noticed. Maybe that's what Selena Gomez is.

So, Geir, what about Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs making those interminable albums of covers. Does that count as faithful homage, and therefore acceptable as powerpop, even though they are deathly records?

I surely see that as a homeage. The covers album is generally a paying tribute to your influences kind of thing.

The most important thing is to keep those pro writers out of it. In a better, less ageist and sexist, world, those 30-40-something pro songwriters would have been huge stars singing and playing their own material, written for themselves, rather than letting some good-looking 20 year-old chick with more looks and "X-Factor" than talent perform it instead.

The Rainy Day project that Susanna Hoffs was involved in once upon a time is a phenomenal covers/tribute disc. I'd put the version of "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong" up against the original as a matter of fact. I haven't heard the one she did with Mr. Sweet yet.

Wait, so are the early Bangles officially considered powerpop? (I can hear "Going Down To Liverpool" -- a cover version! -- at least.) What about the Go-Gos? (In fact, a bigger question, which touches both on the all-one-gender list at the top of this thread and things a couple people have said here about lonely 30-year-old male singers -- Can powerpop be sung by women at all? I'm starting to think people define it, consciously or unconsciously, it as an extremely male genre -- something else it would have in common with emo, hmmm...)

I don't really subscribe to the male-only idea. I'd consider the Bangs/Bangles records to be powerpop. Also Nikki & the Corvettes and Holly & the Italians, I reckon.

Joan Jett seems pretty power-poppy to me

Can powerpop be sung by women at all?

I guess Bangles are an obvious example, also Holly & The Italians. And, yes, I hear a lot of powerpop elements in The Go-Go's. Generally 80s girl groups who wrote their own material and didn't use a lot of synths have a lot of powerpop in them.

But more than 90s per cent of powerpop singers are males. Which may also have to do with the fact that 100 per cent of powerpop's most important influences had male singers.

sometimes I wonder if you're getting stupider but then I realize no, you were always this stupid

A woman friend of mine during college years, a real power pop aficionado who I think went on to become a music reporter, would disregard out-of-hand any pop band that had a woman in it. Joan Jett was the only exception.

xp So is some of the Donnas' poppier stuff, and Benatar's "Heartbreaker" and "Hig Me With Your Best Shot", and Scandal's "Goodbye To You" and "The Warrior". But for some reason nobody ever mentions people like that when discussing this stuff.

Some good (non-female) '00s indie-label bands I'd definitely consider powerpop, btw (especially if the Exploding Hearts are): FM Knives, Clorox Girls, Briefs, maybe the Hatepinks.

And in reference to nothing in particular, I can't believe nobody (including me) has mentioned the Romantics til now.

Also, fwiw, I think early '60s girl groups have definitely had an influence on some powerpop.

ooh Benatar yeah that's a good one. she could get a little arty/proggy sometimes but those pop singles have a lot of power behind them

xp "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," obviously.

Also powerpop: Tiffany's cover of "I Saw (Him) Standing There." (Though not her cover of "I Think We're Alone Now," probably, even though the Rubinoos also did it. Tommy James maybe a seminal influence in general.)

Disagree with Geir -- I think many power pop singers would have loved to sound like Ronnie Spector.

(wow -- i tried to post this but xhuxk got there first.)

xp And Josie Cotton, "Johnny Are You Queer?" (In fact probably both her LPs. And lots of other cutesy-poo early '80s L.A. girl new-wave stuff.)

Katrina. Marti Jones' 1st.

God I love FM Knives

A few months ago, I made a two-CD compilation of (more or less) power-pop for the husband of a co-worker. I included a number of songs with female voices: Ladybug's "Go," Love Positions' "Twenty-Five More," Fuzzy's "Flashlight," Scrawl's "See," the Primitives' "Stop Killing Me," She Mob's "Your Therapy," the Shop Assistants' "Safety Net," and Velocity Girl's "I Don't Care if You Go." I could just as easily have added Bikini Kill's "False Start," Bratmobile's "Richard," the Vivian Girls' "I Believe in Nothing," or a few others. I don't think any of them would be normally be considered power-pop; my female definition spills over into punk, and often features small, flat vocals. I have no idea what that says about me.

Band that I'm most surprised no one has yet mentioned: the power-pop meets art-rock Electric Light Orchestra. They were pretty great.

uhm ELO has been mentioned

And even if they may not sound the same, I bet virtually every male-fronted power-pop band from 1970 forward has had a fair amount of reverence for the Shangri-Las, the Spector girl-groups, and the Dionne Warwick/Jackie DeShannon (who wrote "Needles and Pins"...) wing of Bacharach/David pop...oops; I tried to search ELO, but maybe I didn't have the whole thread open.

Don't ditch the "here's a tasty coconut" handle--that's like my favourite ever!

listening to some rhino 3-cd cars comp right now that someone brought into the store and man people better never forget how much power they put into their pop. wotta band. reminds me of when i got that 3cd live tom petty thing this winter. that thing just gives and gives and gives for hours. so, i vote cars and tom petty. yes i know what power pop purists call power pop. i've got all those albums too but rilly for all the "in a perfect world jellyfish would have been HUGE" nerd debates all the best power pop bands on earth WERE HUGE a la cars petty abba badfinger elo cheap trick etc. not that i don't dig obscurantism. i am made of it.

Ha ha, I've coined a different word for Scrawl, the Primitives, She Mob, the Shop Assistants, Velocity Girl, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and the Vivian Girls -- I call it "indie rock." (Just kidding, sort of. I actually like some She Mob and Scrawl I've heard a lot -- even wrote about Scrawl for a forgotten bands of the past 20 years Spin issue last year -- and I love the Primitives' "Crash", which is powerpoppy for sure. Not a fan of small introverted vocals, in general, though, which usually tend to hit me as either inept or an infantile affectation -- and that goes equal for male and female ones, I think.)

(Haven't heard most of those other bands Clemenza named in that post.)

That's the thing: when females sing punk, it can sometimes end up sounding very sad and wistful in a way that it rarely (if ever) does when sung by males. Maybe it's a weird variation on the lonely 30-year-old guy trying to write the perfect pop song while being resigned to the fact it will never be heard; the 20-year-old girl trying to write a great punk song while being resigned to the fact that she'll never be taken seriously as a punk by a lot of very shortsighted guys. I'm not in any way saying that applies to all female punks; Poly Styrene, for example, didn't sound like she was worried about not being taken seriously. But I do hear something like that in some of the female songs I listed, and it ends up sounding sort of...power-poppy.

Thus Sang Freud: Infield Fly Rule's "Carolina"--nice! Much more on the jangly side, I'd say. Late '70s? Onto the permanent hard-drive it goes.

wow thanks, clemenza. The single came out in '86, but the project was an attempt to document the sound of my late 70s band that combusted before we could record anything. So...good guess!