GreenVulture

Those are all full-length albums.

I seriously doubt that even Freddie Mercury would agree with you. If you took all the good to decent tracks from the above albums and cobbled it together, you would have a solid album. Everything else? Filler city.

Hokeyboy

So might this:

To claim Cheap Trick isn't a Power Pop band is just plain silly.

And I could eat a box full of liquefied vinyl and puke a better album than anything The Jam has ever recorded.

mike7162

Jimi Hendrix -

Are You Experienced?
Axis:Bold As Love
Electric Ladyland
Band of Gypsys

The Holy texts of Rock guitar.

NoirFan

Didn't you get the memo? They're "a hair band with a pop influence". I really don't get the hyperbolic vitriol for either Cheap Trick or The Jam in this thread. They're both fantastic bands, although I definitely have to disagree with this statement:

I consider almost everything post-Dream Police (and certainly post-All Shook Up) and pre-Cheap Trick (1997) to be pretty terrible.

Hokeyboy

I'll be honest... I barely know any Jam. I'm just being a contradictory asshole.


But I do love me some Cheap Trick.

Supermallet

Actually, now that you mention it, this is a good time for another list...

The Jam: All Mod Cons, Setting Sons, Sound Affects, The Gift

jmu878

surely everyone knows those!...just because you like them doesn't make them "classics" aka some of the best of all time.

Supermallet

Just because you don't know them doesn't mean they aren't classic albums.

Edit: And by the way, it's "feat," not "feet."

Rocketdog2000

A "hair band", just how old are you son? Cheap Trick were together and making (arguably) their best records a good decade before the whole "hair band" movement ever came about. Just because they had their biggest hit during that era, however, does not a "hair band" make them.

As to your comment about the roots of power pop - well dear boy, Trick were greatly influenced by bands like The Yardbirds, The Who, The Move and other 60's era UK bands - so that blows your theory completely out of the water. The Jam may have been influenced by the "60's UK sound", but it was primarily from the "Mod" movement only. I would never, ever, even remotely refer to them as a "power pop". This is not to say that they weren't a good band, just not a "power pop" band.

CRM114

Yeah, um, that's why I posted it. CT was just a hair band that teeny boppers sang "I Want You to Want Me" at high school dances. Bands "who merged power pop influences with other styles" - in other words, commercial bands that used some of the power pop stuff going on at the time. I can assure you The Jam or The Buzzcocks would never play anything as lame as Dream Police.

Rocketdog2000

In that case, I throw your own quote back at you, sir...

"You have got to be kidding. I've never heard a Cheap Trick song I've liked. Paul Weller could record himself taking a dump and it would sound better than the best Cheap Trick song."

When someone makes a quote like that, then they strike me as someone only familiar with "the hits". You obviously haven't listen to enough, or the right songs form the band. But then again, I really don't have lot of use for The Jam, either. Doesn't mean I don't respect them, though.

CRM114

I am 41 and was actually alive when both bands were in their prime. The Jam not power pop? That is absolutely laughable.

Cheap Trick not a hair band - whatever, they were playing the same concert halls as Foghat and Blue Oyster Cult. And I saw them all. So Quiet Riot and all the other lame commercial metal bands came later. Same difference.

Supermallet

Well, fair enough then. I have only heard Cheap Trick's singles, but those are so noxious that I can't see why I would have an incentive to hear the albums.

And I'm certainly capable of respecting artists/bands I dislike. I hate Bruce Springsteen but I respect that he's considered one of the all time great rock artists.

Rocketdog2000

And personally, I still stand by that statement. That's the difference between someone who is truly a fan of a band, which I clearly am, and someone who is not. Doesn't mean you can't disagree, but I'd rather listen to just about any Cheap Trick album over a lot of stuff I see other people post here. It's just my personal taste as opposed to theirs. To each their own.

CRM114

Just because you are ignorant of a seminal band in probably the most important period in rock music since the 1960's does not mean that band is not classic.

CRM114

And don't you love how on Heaven Tonight's album cover, they put the two big haired guys and put Bun E. Carlos and Rick Nielsen on the back? And In Color.

Rocketdog2000

Really? How many songs by The Jam show up on Power Pop compilations? That would probably be...oh let me see... NONE. As opposed to Trick who are usually always on them. Let's look at the kind of bands The Jam influenced - Blur, Oasis, Pulp. would you call any of them Power pop? I don't think so.

The Jam is a "Brit Pop" band, not a "Power Pop" band.

CRM114

What the hell are you talking about? You have absolutely NO context as to who The Jam was, do you?

Rocketdog2000

I dare anyone to give the first Cheap Trick album a fair listen, and then still try to tell me they think the band sucks, or didn't make some great, seminal music. Hell, even Big Black covered their "He's A Whore" from that record.

Rocketdog2000

Apparently about as much as you do for Cheap Trick. In the end, it's all about perspective. You say to-mato, I say toma-to.

At least in my case, I can still still use the present tense, as my band, they're still around.

Supermallet

Rocketdog, I will accept that challenge and give the first Cheap Trick album a listen at some point.

Hokeyboy

NoirFan, look what you started.

CRM114

Of course I do. I was a teenager when Cheap Trick was in their prime.

Anyway, I think we are just having a difference of opinion on what power pop is. I see mainly the British thing and you see it mainly as an American thing.

As for still being "around," bands like The Jam and The Clash and The Buzzcocks will live on forever.

Rocketdog2000

Fair enough, let's just leave the bickering at that then. My point being that we each see things a different way based on what they mean to us, and our relative perspective because of that. The Jam clearly had a strong impact on you, while they've never done a whole hell of a lot for me. Likewise Cheap Trick mean way more to me, than they ever will to you. I'll admit, over the years I've grown some appreciation for The Jam, but I'd, personally, still never refer to them as power pop.

As for the "power pop" definition, to me, ALL influence starts with the melodic sense of The Beatles, and filters down from there to other bands like The Who (for the "power" aspect), and so fourth. I just don't hear a lot of Beatles influence in The Jam, other than the obvious "British" part. But that's me. You, on the other hand likely see it entirely differently.

In fairness, even part of the Wiki definition you supplied says as much about how we see this differently...

"United Kingdom

The term power pop, as used in the United Kingdom, referred to a somewhat different style of music than that of the United States. The Evening Standard used the term in January 1978 while writing about The Rich Kids and Tonight. Other British bands labelled as power pop included The Jam, Squeeze, Buzzcocks, The Vapors, and The Chords. The term became something of a catchall, as many of these groups have also been described as mod revival, punk rock, or new wave. Lacking the influence of American pioneers such as Big Star and The Raspberries, these bands were more directly inspired by 1960s beat music bands, particularly The Who, The Kinks and The Beatles. They also took a cue from the energy and aesthetics of the contemporary punk movement, speeding up the tempo of their music.

Other UK artists of the late 1970s commonly identified as power pop were the new wave bands XTC and Elvis Costello & The Attractions. They played driving, melodic music, but neither group sported the mod image or overt 1960s influence of The Jam and their followers.

A handful of successful bands in the United Kingdom did boast the traditional power pop sound as inspired by The Raspberries and Big Star. Singles from such groups, such as The Records' "Starry Eyes", Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind", and Bram Tchaikovsky's "Girl Of My Dreams", rivaled or even surpassed their American counterparts in capturing the essential elements of power pop. Perhaps as a consequence, these bands were more commercially successful in the United States than in their homeland.

That last paragraph is particularly true to me. I think that both Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind", and Bram Tchaikovsky's "Girl Of My Dreams" are perfect examples of what I would refer to as the power pop sound. But I just don't hear it so much in something like say The Jam's "Town Called Malice". But again, that's me.

Supermallet

Forget "Town Called Malice," as that is obviously a Motown homage. Try something like "Pretty Green" from Sound Affects for a better idea of why someone might think of them as power pop.

And XTC was just pop (delicious, brilliant pop), not power pop. The Buzzcocks are probably a better example of power pop, as their songs had a punk sound but they were clearly influenced by the songcraft of The Beatles.