Let's try to define it. It could cover a wide range of styles, but in this case, our focus is guitar-driven power pop from 1975 through 1982 or so. It was, primarily, an American (or North American, as there are some Canadians represented) form. In England, it seemed to bleed over into other genres: bubblegum and glam, punk, pub rock, and new wave. As a sub-genre, it seemed to consist primarily of acts who were, at best, bubbling under. Why? Who knows. There was certainly less deserving music taking up space on the airwaves: coprolites, opera men, yacht rock, down south jukers.... This stuff is made for summer and the road. I road tested these songs on a cross country trek earlier this week. My ears are still ringing...couldn't keep the volume down. While some of these bands were national acts - in part due to early MTV exposure - most seem to have been local or regional.  While I tried to make the list comprehensive, it is biased towards some of those local and region...

Today, April 28 in l978, Cheap Trick recorded the first of two shows from which  Cheap Trick at Budokan  was culled. Initially a Japanese only release, it proved a popular import and was released domestically in early l979. It was my first real album purchase aside from some Beatles and Beach Boy ‘Best Ofs” and...um... Paperlace (when I was 8). I remember the booklet that came with the album  ––  the lyrics were in English, there were some tour photos and everything else was written in Japanese. Five (and a half) of the album's lO songs were from  In Color . I read somewhere that the band wasn't happy with that LP's slick production, and wanted a do-over. It certainly worked with " I Want You to Want Me " and " Clock Strikes Ten "...the other three songs on this expanded version do not disappoint. Later, during the summer of '79, my dad took me and three friends to see Cheap Trick. The Pez Band (later Off Broadway ) opened up. Dad was over 4...