Power Pop - Contemporary Power Pop: 1980s To 2000s

Contemporary Power Pop: 1980s To 2000s

In the 1980s and 1990s, power pop continued as a commercially modest genre. Artists such as The Spongetones, Marshall Crenshaw, Del Amitri, Enuff Z'nuff, The Smithereens, Matthew Sweet, Tommy Keene, Redd Kross, Material Issue and The Posies drew inspiration from Big Star, The Beatles and glam rock groups of the early 1970s like T. Rex and Sweet. Albums such as Material Issue's International Pop Overthrow (1991), Jellyfish's Bellybutton (1990) and Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque (1991) would be greatly influential within the genre, but few translated to mainstream success.

In the mid-1990s through the 2000s, power pop flourished in the underground with acts such as Sloan. Independent record labels such as Not Lame Recordings, Parasol, Kool Kat Musik and Jam Recordings specialized in the genre. The sound made a mainstream appearance in 1994 with Weezer's commercially successful "blue album" and hit single "Buddy Holly". In the late 1990s, several Scandinavian power pop groups such as the The Cardigans, Merrymakers and Wannadies enjoyed a modicum of critical favor.

Power pop traits are also currently displayed by North American bands such as Gin Blossoms, Fountains of Wayne, The New Pornographers, Guided By Voices, Semisonic, Jimmy Eat World, The Click Five, The Dandy Warhols, Sloan, The Apples in Stereo, Cotton Mather and Fastball. The influence of power pop is also apparent in contemporary British groups such as Silver Sun, The Futureheads, Maxïmo Park, Farrah, The Feeling, Razorlight, Babyshambles and The Libertines. There is also a movement of bands directly inspired by the British power pop sound made popular in the late 1970s. "Boy bands" like the Jonas Brothers have also sometimes been referred to as "power pop."