How Can Anyone Not Like Power Pop?

The previous post about The New Pornographers in concert is just a teaser for a larger subject that's been on my mind.

I recall with great clarity a party held at my college apartment, oh, four years ago, when one of my friends decided we were going to take over DJ and slip in The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema (still their best album).  We did, and we were rockin' on, and my one roommate (who was younger and in many ways, slightly less sophisticated), tore through the living room, said, "This sucks!" and popped in some Smash Mouth.  My friend and I just looked at each other and shook our heads.  It's impossible to get through to some people.

Sure, Smash Mouth is easily categorized as pop.  And the lead singer has a lot of tattoos, and I think they started out kind of rock-y, so some people will throw them under the pop/rock label.  But it seems to me that today, things that can truly fall under the categories of pop and rock have lost a lot of the force that once categorized them as Power Pop.

There is the old truth that very often, people will only like what they're conditioned to like.  This very often goes without saying.  Beat people over the head with it enough and they'll be convinced that they enjoy it.

But I don't understand how this does not relate to the subgenre known as power pop.  You can almost call it a number of things (as with any genre, really), and some labels are more accurate than others.  For example, the term Baroque Pop makes me want to stab my eyes out.  Unless you've got some harpsichord and serious ornamentation going on there, you are lying to yourself (Stephen Merritt being the only person I've heard write a legit Baroque Pop song).

Upon consulting to see what falls under the wikipedia label of power pop, I see a lot of stuff I really, really love, namely champion power pop band Material Issue.  Usual suspects are listed, such as The La's, Matthew Sweet, Fountains of Wayne, and the granddaddies of power pop, The Kinks (also one of my absolute favorite bands).  Discusses Pete Townshend coining the term in NME in '67 - I thought of him too, obviously, when I heard "I Can't Explain" on the radio the other day.

And then it moves into pop punk hits of The Aughts.  Bleh.  Sure, the All-American Rejects get airplay because their songs are so catchy, but I don't think they count as power pop mostly because they're all pop, no power. 

Older bands such as Material Issue and the Kinks are just more substantial than many bands who try to roll in on the power pop label these days.  Put Cheap Trick and OK Go in a cage match - even now that all the Cheap Trick guys are really old - and see who comes out the victor.  The whole point behind power pop is that there is power behind it.  I'd say the power comes from serious musical chops and heavy use of "rock" instruments as opposed to one-trick guitar ponies, or light, highly synth-based instrumentation.  But that power is also derived from enduring songs rather than forgettable ones.  Somewhere in my childhood, the Material Issue song "Valerie Loves Me" crept into my head.  I forgot it for a good 15 years, at least, and then it resurfaced when I started to frequent a specific bar that played a lot of 80s and very early 90s gems.  Something in my brain clicked, and it was like finding a long lost cousin.  Every time I hear that song, I still dance like an absolute maniac.  My friends look at me like I'm nuts, like that old roommate did when we jammed out to "Use It", but alas.

Lo, the power of an enduring pop song.  There is no magic elixir or secret weapon that enables anyone to do that, really.  And still, songwriters like Jonathan Richman and Robert Pollard are legends among their own cult followings, but they'll never get the recognition they deserve.

This is why I don't understand how a band like The New Pornographers aren't more popular than they currently are - like, mainstreamly popular - aside from the name.  Yes, you could hear "The Bleeding Hearts Show" on that University of Phoenix commercial a few years ago, but it bothers me that the golden days of power pop are over.  I've heard it asked before, but why can't this stuff chart anymore?  Would it, if Lady GaGa were singing these songs?

And that goes for a lot of bands who are considerably more twee than TNP - Tullycraft comes to mind, as does Australian bloke Keith John Adams.  Tullycraft even wrote a song that deliciously comments on punks going softer, which is way more power pop-esque than simply adding a melodic line to a "punk song", or making a song with a very simple melody "punk" by speeding it up.  Tee hee!



And for those interested, Keith John Adams does a pretty good job at infusing his melody with real power:



I also recommend both of these acts because they are phenomenal live - and when Tullycraft plays, their melodica player even serves a purpose!

Man, just listening to these songs, I am dancin' already.  But if I traveled back in time to that party 4 years ago, no matter how much I boogied to KJA or how high I pogoed to Tullycraft, only my friend who also loves The New Pornographers would have been dancing with me.  Everyone else would have said it sucked and walked off.  I have since found other people who love this music as much as I do, and god only knows.  Maybe power pop is making a comeback?  I see lots of teenagers running around in The Who shirts, even though most of them don't know who The Who are.  Which reminds me of my favorite two minutes in all of cartoon-dom: Who's on stage?

In the meantime, forget all of those Rhino Records compilations that I still haven't gotten all the way through.  I need to order the sequel to this before it goes out of print.



God this video is SO EARLY 90S!!!!!!!!



This is not the greatest quality, but it captures the spirit of the song (albeit you can't hear Pete's vocals all that well).