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| From | Ralph Alfonso <ralph@nettwerk.com> |
| Subject | power pop / garage |
| Date | Wed, 18 Aug 2004 11:16:37 -0700 |
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The Who (1960s Quick One era) = powerpop
Pretty Things (pre-psych) = garage rock
Shadows of Knight = garage rock
Bobby Fuller Four = power pop
Sonics - whoa!!! garage rock +
Paul revere & The Raiders = hmmmm..... their
coat-tails swung both ways.... hahahaaaa....
Basically, as a rule of thumb, garage rock
is a Mick Jaggeresque / Phil May/ growly
vocal singer spewing invectives over a fuzzed out
repetitive guitar riff (ala Satisfaction). Recording
technique (in ultimate conditions) is primitive and/or
primitive evoking.... the overall feel and emotion
and delivery over-riding any musical shortcomings
(the less chords and more fuzz the better). Garage
rock is usually blues based revamps of Bo Diddley via
The Stones thus American bands reflecting back the
more rawer of the UK 60s beat groups.
The genre has become very refined over the years
and open to more outside influences but the basic stance
and costume (early Stones and shaggy haircuts - see
Chesterfield Kings for ultimate style guides) is
intrinsic. Subject matter usually disdain for a situation of
some kind ("you left me", "don't put me down", "girls are bad", etc)
Power Pop is the next evolutionary rung up from garage rock in
that the costume is more spruced up (possibly overlapping Mod),
the haircuts cleaner (see Knack) and the general musical thrust
more melodic with emphasis on cleverness/difficulty of the
musical structure (altho still deceptively simple sounding) in
that the primary influences here are The Beatles/Byrds/Who
with vocal harmonies from Hollies/Beatles/etc.. but
the sound is intended to be beefed up as it is "power" pop.
Power Pop is essentially non-threatening but implied power
is there in case it is a "important" song - this way, the message
can be nestled within a clever pop tune.... the ultimate goal being
the ultimate pop song... subject matter usually wordly, positive,
and if about love, bittersweet
As a general rule of thumb, possibly half of IPO bands are power pop.
the "power pop" term, i think, sprung from the famous Bomp issue that
championed it
(later spoofed by magnet?) and also was used for a brief spurt of UK "power
pop" bands post punk (1979-80) in the UK (The Boyfriends, etc) and here
it was bestowed to The Knack, Shoes, etc.. altho many bands, in hindsight,
can be considered power pop (Cheap Trick, Big Star, the Move)
in no way, can power pop be mistaken for garage rock in their pure forms.
altho some bands stylistically shift from one form to the other as
they progress
over time so it can blur within the context of a particular band
(Hoodoo Gurus).
power pop overlaps with Mod but Mod has very particular guidelines, thus
power pop is the most chameleonic of the genres since, with minor
tweaks here and there,
a power pop can easily fit into other genres....
anyway, this is off the top of my head, as always.... but basically,
it is really very easy to tell
one from the other....
ralph
my homage to UK mod/US garage is a cool little cd from 1995 called
"Olympia 66" which
can be ordered from my website or, if you are a store, from Burnside
Distribution...or Amazon.com
it is neither garage rock nor power pop nor mod per se but evocative
of the overall vibe (it's just me
on vocals with my pal Stephen Quinn on revved up mod guitar live in
Vancouver). I was just listening
to it the other night as I will be revisiting some of this material
with Kimberley Rew at IPO Liverpool on
Oct 24 and was surprised at how well it stood up considering it was
all one take live in concert....
Dig that crazy Bongo Beat!
Visit my web site
Http://www.bongobeat.com
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