Loud Music In Cars: AOR & Power Pop

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Connoisseurs agree that the ingredients for power pop are: a heavy beat, jangling guitars, harmony vocals and romantic lyrics. Its influences come from the 1960s, when bands such as The Kinks, The Beatles, The Searchers, The Hollies, The Who and later Badfinger used multiple elements. Todd Rundgren was the first one to talk about power pop, when he used the term on TV-program The Midnight Special in 1972. The genre was especially popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, because it had similarities with then popular punk and new wave, such as the directness and the DIY attitude. In contrast to the aforementioned genres, power pop mainly consists of having fun in music, without any social context. According to music journalist Bob Stanley power pop sounded like “whatever the opposite of the Eagles was.”

Singer Bernard William Jewry made some records in the early 1960s as Shane Fenton, but they were not very successful. The next decade things changed when he renamed himself Alvin Stardust in the heyday of glam rock. He created a leather suit character that looked like rock 'n' roll singer Gene Vincent. His single Jealous Mind even went to number one in the UK. In the early 1980s he reappeared on the charts when he recorded Pretend for punk label Stiff. The single reached number one on the Dutch pop charts, which is quite an achievement for a pop singer who almost turned 40 at the time.Stardust died at home after a brief illness on 23 October 2014.

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Tracklist:

Blondie – Sunday Girl (1978)
Alvin Stardust – Pretend (1981)
Tommy Conwell And The Young Rumblers – I'm Seventeen (1990)
Kuzko – Home (2022)
The Jags – Back Of My Hand (1979)
Rick Springfield – Jessie's Girl (1981)
Big Star – September Gurls (1974)
Marshall Crenshaw – Someday, Someway (1982)
The Romantics ‎– Talking In Your Sleep (1983)
The Cars ‎– You Might Think (1984)
'Til Tuesday ‎– Voices Carry (1985)
Deep Blue Something – Breakfast At Tiffanys (1996)
Del Amitri – When You Were Young (1993)
Cheap Trick – If You Want My Love (1982)
Billy Bremner – Loud Music In Cars (1981)
Nick Lowe – Cruel To Be Kind (1979)
Go-Go's – Our Lips Are Sealed (1981)
Fischer-Z – So Long (1980)
Fountains Of Wayne – A Dip In The Ocean (2011)
Primitives – Crash (1988)
The Spongetones – (My Girl) Maryanne (1984)
Kirsty MacColl – There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis (1981)
Del Shannon – Needles And Pins (1965)
The Kinks – How Are You (1986)
The Searchers – Take Me For What I'm Worth (1965)