POWER BALLAD

A 'power ballad' is a song style frequently included on arena rock, hard rock and heavy metal albums in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s; the style has evolved into more modern forms since.
''Power ballads'' are usually not so much ballads as they are love songs. They often explore sentimental themes such as heartache and need, love and loss. They are usually of confessional nature and differ from metal's more lyrical themes of sex, violence, and drugs. Power ballads became a staple in the 1980s and were immediately marketable to the public. A power ballad is usually featured near the end of an album as a wind down from the faster-paced songs that preceded it.

Contents

Format

History

Present use

As a marketing tactic

References

Format

Typically, a power ballad begins with a soft keyboard or acoustic guitar introduction. Heavy drums and distorted electric guitars don't enter into the arrangement until the chorus or even later in the song. The electric guitar parts usually take the form of simple root/fifth power chords which sustain until the next chord change, but screaming, melodic guitar solos are also important markers of this genre. The interplay throughout the arrangement between "clean" timbres and distorted ones is crucial to the creation of emotional tension in the power ballad aesthetic.

History

Power ballads initially came into popularity at the insistence of a record company in hope of scoring a Top Forty hit, and in the genre's formative years were written only grudgingly by band members. However in recent years, power ballads have been re-imagined as something "authentic" rather than something "manufactured" (i.e. pushed onto bands by record labels). In any event, power ballads were often a band's most (or only) commercially successful songs. Because of the perceived superficiality of their sentiment, though, power ballads were consistently despised by music critics, who rejected the way metal musicians actively borrowed the musical codes normally reserved for more "authentic" styles of rock.
An important precursor for the form was The Carpenters' "Goodbye to Love" single in 1972, which featured a fuzz-tone screaming guitar solo (by Tony Peluso) situated next to a "middle of the road" vocal.^[1]
Power ballads originated in the 1970s with power pop band The Raspberries and arena rock bands like Styx, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Def Leppard, Queen, and heavy metal pioneers Scorpions. Early examples of power ballads are "Don't Wanna Say Goodbye" from the Raspberries' debut album in 1972, ''The Raspberries'', Styx's "Lady" from their 1973 album ''Styx II'', Queen's "I'm in Love with My Car" from their 1975 album ''A Night at the Opera''. As a solo artist, Raspberries lead singer and chief songwriter Eric Carmen continued to contribute to the genre by creating the #2 hit "All By Myself" in 1976.
In the 1980s, rock, hard rock and heavy metal bands began to climb the Billboard charts with power ballads, while MTV rotation fueled their popularity. Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" charted in 1983, Scorpions' "Still Loving You" and Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" both charted in 1984^[2][3], as did Dokken's "Alone Again" in 1985.^[4] Prince's "Purple Rain" stands as a prime example of a 1980s power ballad from a genre other than metal.
By the mid 1980s, the rise in popularity of the power ballad was signified with MTV's most requested video for four months straight,^[5] "Home Sweet Home" by Mötley Crüe, released in 1985 on the ''Theatre of Pain'' album. Many consider it the defining power ballad of the 1980s.
In the pop metal and glam metal genres, later developments of the style from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s are exemplified by such hits as the following:

★ Aerosmith

★
★ "Angel"

★
★ "What It Takes"

★ Bon Jovi

★
★ "Always"

★
★ "Bed of Roses"

★
★ "I'll Be There for You"

★
★ "Never Say Goodbye"

★ Cinderella

★
★ "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)"

★ Def Leppard

★
★ "Love Bites"

★
★ "Hysteria"

★
★ "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad"

★ Guns N' Roses

★
★ "Sweet Child o' Mine"^[6]

★
★ "Patience"

★
★ "Don't Cry"

★
★ "November Rain"

★
★ "Estranged"

★ Kiss

★
★ "Reason to Live"

★
★ "Forever"

★
★ "Every Time I Look at You"

★
★ "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll to You II"

★ Lita Ford & Ozzy Osbourne

★
★ "Close My Eyes Forever"

★ Mötley Crüe

★
★ "Home Sweet Home"

★
★ "Without You"

★ Night Ranger

★
★ "Sister Christian"

★ Ozzy Osbourne

★
★ "Mama, I'm Coming Home"

★
★ "Road to Nowhere"

★ Poison

★
★ "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"

★
★ "Something to Believe In"

★
★ "Life Goes On"

★ Scorpions

★
★ "Believe in Love"

★
★ "Send Me an Angel".

★
★ "Still Loving You"

★
★ "Wind of Change"

★ Skid Row

★
★ "18 and Life"

★
★ "I Remember You"

★
★ "Wasted Time"

★ Warrant

★
★ "Heaven"

★
★ "I Saw Red"
For some 1970s arena rock artists, the power ballad was also responsible for helping to revive their careers in the 1980s; examples include Heart's "These Dreams" and Cheap Trick's "The Flame". After the release of Van Halen's "When It's Love", the term power ballad started to decline in use.

Present use

The term ''power ballad'' is still used to this day in reference to songs such as Avenged Sevenfold's "Seize The Day", Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends", Evanescence's "My Immortal", Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", Velvet Revolver's "Fall to Pieces", Nickelback's "How You Remind Me",Keane's "On A Day Like Today" and Rock Star Supernova's "Can't Bring Myself To Light This Fuse".
Occasionally, the term is applied more generally to rock songs which start slowly and quietly and then gradually crescendo to a powerful, climactic end. This usage is far less common, however, and seems to be a retroactive application of the genre's name to pre-1980s album-oriented rock songs such as Queen's "We Are the Champions", Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", Aerosmith's "Dream On", Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird", as well as to 1990s and 2000s songs like Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm", Stone Temple Pilots's "Creep, Fuel's "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" and Bush's "Glycerine", all of which vaguely fit the power ballad aesthetic but do not exhibit the sentimentality associated with 1980s power ballads. Instead, many of these better fit the category of rock anthem. Generally a power (or rock) ballad is considered suitable for slow dancing because of its slow beat.
In recent years, compilations of power ballads, including the ''Monster Ballads'' series, have become popular.

As a marketing tactic

Despite the general sales boost associated with power ballads, most record labels feel that releasing a ballad in the fall or winter will help the single become a bigger commercial hit, as it fits the mood of the cold and dark setting of the season. It also helps sell the artist's album more if a ballad becomes a big hit during the holiday shopping season. RCA Records, whose artist roster includes Christina Aguilera ("Beautiful", "The Voice Within", "Hurt") and Kelly Clarkson, is known to use this to their advantage.

References

1. "Popular Musicians" by Steve Hochman/Mcrea Adams page 168 Book
2. Billboard.com - Artist Chart History - Scorpions
3. Billboard.com - Artist Chart History - Night Ranger
4. Billboard.com - Artist Chart History - Dokken
5. Mötley Crüe - Biography - MTV.com
6. ''Appetite for Destruction'' - All Music Guide. Accessed on August 14, 2007.