Looking For the Magic - The 50 Best Power Pop Albums
by BorderFreeAndrew 
For me, one of music's greatest mysteries is why the genre of Power Pop hasn't been more popular. Soaring melodies. Catchy hooks. Infectious guitar riffs. Lyrics about young love. What could be more universally appealing???
And yet throughout it's 50+ year history, Power Pop has remained a marginalized and niche genre, most of it's greatest practitioners toiling in relative obscurity. And on those rare occasions when a Power Pop act does break through to mainstream commercial success (The Knack, Cheap Trick, Supergrass, Weezer), they usually had to do it by blending in with other genres/scenes (new wave, hard rock, brit-pop, grunge).
So with this list I'd like to do my small part to correct this injustice and bring some attention to the most under-appreciated sub-genre of rock music. In a perfect world, all of these bands/artists would have truly been "big stars".
- Chart updated: 05/06/2023 18:15
- (Created: 05/06/2023 18:00).
- Chart size: 50 albums.
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Fave track: Feel
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,696
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
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Fave track: September Gurls
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,880
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Fave track: Couldn't I Just Tell You
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,249
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Fave track: Bastards of Young
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,749
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Fave track: Can't Hardly Wait
Year of Release:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,389
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Fave track: Sun Hits the Sky
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,131
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Fave track: Southern Girls
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Fave track: Name of the Game
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
676
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Fave track: Kingdom of Love
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,450
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Fave track: Surrender
Total albums: 50. Page 1 of 5
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Looking For the Magic - The 50 Best Power Pop Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1970s | 21 | 42% | |
| 1980s | 9 | 18% | |
| 1990s | 15 | 30% | |
| 2000s | 5 | 10% | |
| 2010s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Cheap Trick | 3 | 6% | |
| Supergrass | 3 | 6% | |
| Badfinger | 2 | 4% | |
| The dB's | 2 | 4% | |
| Nick Lowe | 2 | 4% | |
| The New Pornographers | 2 | 4% | |
| Weezer | 2 | 4% | |
| Show all | |||
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