While the term “power pop” was coined by Pete Townshend of The Who — the origins of the genre are not as obscure. Many other writers have addressed this topic. You can state that the roots of power pop are connected directly to the roots of rock and roll. Gary “Pig” Gold has a solid post about where those roots lie here. Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Del Shannon, The Dave Clark Five, Paul Revere and The Raiders, and The Who are all instrumental in the development of both rock and roll as well as power pop. For many people The Beatles are the original power pop group, some speculate that “Day Tripper” is the first power pop song.
Carl Cafarelli, host of THIS IS ROCK ‘N’ ROLL RADIO with Dana & Carl (Sunday nights, 9 to Midnight Eastern, www.westcottradio.org) has a detailed post of the history of power pop here that’s a pretty good read. You can find good references to this if you do your research. We can all disagree on where power pop “started” much like scientists argue over whether Pluto is a planet, or how the Dinosaurs disappeared off the earth. As long as we have some great music to listen to, the facts of exact origin are purely academic.
