Shake Some Action: An Intro To MAGNET’s History Of American Power Pop

Of skinny ties and fat guitar hooks, of teenage love songs sung by jaded adults, of heaven-sent harmonies announcing hearts suffering through hell, we have only this to say about that maligned music known as power pop: It’s really uncool. Here’s thousands of words to sing its praise. MAGNET examines the history of American power pop from the Raspberries to the Posies, tells the story of Big Star and offers up four new bands with the kind of guitars and voices that could make you fall in love in three minutes.

MAGNET picks the top 15 American power-pop albums of all time
Spoon, Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney and others choose their favorite power-pop songs
The history of Big Star
The ’70s: Cheap Trick, Raspberries, Flamin’ Groovies
The ’80s: the dB’s, Let’s Active, Dwight Twilley
The ’90s: Matthew Sweet, the Posies, Velvet Crush
The class of 2002: Phantom Planet
The class of 2002: Arlo
The class of 2002: Bigger Lovers
The class of 2002: Mayflies USA
Franklin Bruno looks back at his power-pop formative years