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