Power pop did not emerge when rock music critics coined the phrase, but instead with 1960s legends like the Beatles. That melody-driven sound, often coupled with loud or jangly guitars, never went away, but it did fade into the shadows from time to time for larger audiences. However, it never lost its hardcore fan base, which is still around.
And the number of great power pop bands is much larger than the names that got wider attention from Cheap Trick and the Cars (not much of a guitar band) to one-hit wonders like the Knack or (deserved) power pop fan favorites like Flamin’ Groovies.
Yet, there are many of those who are considered sound originators or are big with the power pop crowd, who deserved so much more but never got the wider audience attention they truly deserved. Here are 17 such musical artists that should have made it big. They still should.
Power pop acts that never made it big, but deserved to
Big Star
Some say that the term "power pop" was coined around Alex Chilton and this band, created by him and Chris Bell, who left the band after their first album. Bell later recorded one brilliant album, I Am The Cosmos.
There was so much brilliant music on their three official albums, with the first two being true power pop classics, and the third one considered one of the saddest albums in rock and a full-fledged classic.
The Nerves
The Nerves never got a chance to see their classic “Hanging on the Telephone” make it; Blondie did, but they were more than just one song. Included in their ranks was Peter Case and his extraordinary musical talents. They remain a big name among power pop fans nonetheless.
The Plimsouls
Case made another effort at power pop with this band before he decided to go solo as a full-fledged folkie, and created two excellent albums and a live one while they were still around, along with one of power pop anthems that was “A Million Miles Away,” featured in Valley Girls, one of the key teenage movies of the eighties.
The Records
The Records were the epitome of the British power pop sound of the late 1970s, picking up strands of sound from all the British greats of the 1960s - The Beatles, The Kinks, and The Who... It brought them recognition with their “Starry Eyes” single, but unfortunately, that was about it.
Shoes
From the mid-1970s on, the Murphy brothers from Zion, Illinois, and their band, the Shoes, always tried to bring something new to their sound, favoring melody over anything else. They were one of the first bands featured on MTV (back in 1981) and continued to make more than just good albums well into this century, but never received the full recognition they deserved.
The Posies
The Posies started in the mid-eighties and immediately became known in power pop circles, particularly for the intricate vocal harmonies of Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, without shying away from some crunching guitar sounds at the same time (check the brilliant “Solar sister” from their Frosting on the Beater album).
June & Exit Wounds
Illinois seems to have been quite a fertile ground for power pop, particularly in the mid-nineties, with one Todd Fletcher, who went under this strange moniker, creating a little more Haven Hamilton, please, one of the best melody-driven albums of the decade, and then more or less promptly disappeared as a solo artist.
Emitt Rhodes
Starting hi musical journey at the age of 14, late Emitt Rhodes was at one point dubbed as "One-Man Beatles" creating some sublime harmony rock first with (and as) Merry-Go Round and then from 1970 t0 1973 three power pop classics only to have an excellent return in 2016, before he passed four years later.
The Smithereens
These New Jersey guys had a few of their songs like “A Girl Like You” hit the charts, a series of very good to excellent albums (along with the one where they recreated The Who’s Tommy), were always cherished by hardcore power pop fans, but never made it as big as they should have.
The Spongetones
The Beatles were the key inspiration for so many American power pop bands, and that was also the case for these guys from North Carolina. Yet instead of being just pure imitators of the mid-sixties British Invasion sounds, they were able to freshen that sound for later decades, many rating their Beat and Torn album as one of power pop’s best.
Marshall Crenshaw
Early on in his career, back in the eighties, Crenshaw was on the verge of making it really big with ”Someday, Someway” and “Cynical Girl.” And although somebody else made it big with his song (Gin Blossoms with “‘Till I Hear It From You’), he never reached the true highs he deserved.
Tommy Keene
Late Tommy Keene was, and still is, considered one of the power pop stalwarts, thanks to his three 1980s albums and a string of singles, which are cherished by power pop fans to this day. His music never lost either the quality or the characteristic guitar sound he was also known for, up until his last album, Laugh In The Dark, from 2015.
Game Theory/Loud Family
Two distinct bands with one mastermind behind them. That mastermind was one Scott Miller, who likes to combine his jangly power pop with quite a few experimental touches and some complex lyrics. And while both bands (Game Theory in the 1980s and Loud Family in the 1990s) were always big critical favorites and hardcore fan material, they never made it much further than that.
Rain Parade
When Paisley Underground came about in the eighties many critics (and fans) had a hard time defining it as either neo-psych or power pop, and Roback brothers and their The Rain Parade were in the gist of that sound, that was actually a bit of both, creating two excellent studio albums along the way.
Wondermints
A critic's fave back in the nineties, Wondermints created some sublime power pop albums, with Bali possibly being the standout. Their excellent vocal harmonies made them friends with the legend that is Brian Wilson. So, the band eventually became his backing band, with keyboardist Darian Sahanaja serving as a sort of concertmaster.
Teenage Fanclub
If there is a band that still covers every musical aspect of power pop, then it is the Scottish band Teenage Fanclub. Straddling power pop and grunge with their debut Catholic Education to masterpiece that was Bandwagonesque, and then this band is the epitome of what modern power pop is and should be.