5 Decades, 5 Great Guitar Pop Albums
Hopping Across The Expanding Pop Rock Universe One Decade At A Time
A Note Before We Begin: If you like this article, you can read the follow up HERE.
It’s interesting to consider the ways that guitar pop has evolved—and hasn’t—over the last six decades.
Rock’s roots stretch back to the early 1900s, but it really went pop in the ‘60s. Artists like Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, The Shirelles, The Everly Brothers, The Searchers, and others lit the fuse, but it was The Beatles, The Who, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Byrds and other pop rock gods that made it explode.
Like the artists who inspired them, those bands in turn influenced endless variations on a handful of themes. Basic song structure, many lyrical tropes, and rhythmic hallmarks (like double snare hits and handclaps) persist, but this self-regenerating style of music always seems to have a few surprises up its (cuffed, puffy, polka-dotted, paisley, striped, short, plaid or tattooed) sleeves.
And fans like me can never get enough of that revolutionary stuff.
Just consider what it sounded like in 1964.
A Hard Day’s Night was the first Beatles album to feature all songs written by Lennon/McCartney. That marks an important turning point for the Fab Four and guitar pop in general, but the evolution only accelerated from there.
By 1967 it was morphing in several directions with songs like “Happy Together” by The Turtles, “Ruby Tuesday” by The Rolling Stones, “Alone Again Or” by Love, “Who’ll Be The One You Love” by The Easybeats, “Somebody To Love” by The Jefferson Airplane, “The Letter” by The Box Tops and many more. That same year, The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour.
Leap forward a decade to 1977 and punk is popping off. Those first bands were responding to the bloated arena rock of the mid-’70s, stripping rock and roll to its essential roots. So, it’s possible to catch a whiff of ‘50s snarl and ‘60s backbeats and hooks on revved up classics like “Janie Jones” by The Clash, “Rockaway Beach” by Ramones, “School Days” by The Runaways, and “(I’m) Stranded” by The Saints.
“Guitar pop” is the catchall phrase I use most often these days to describe all of that music.
My personal definition encompasses interconnected or overlapping subgenres from power pop to punk, garage to jangle and beyond to indie, twee, psych, sunshine, baroque and various other “pops” and “rocks.”
Spend enough time with all of that music and certain similarities and common threads begin to emerge. It’s how one song can lead us to another, and why fans love tumbling down rabbit holes to inspect the interplay of influences.
Some artists proudly display them on their sleeves, while others so fully absorb them into their own music that it can be hard to easily detect or pinpoint. As a music lover, to misquote a U.S. Supreme Court justice, “You know it when you hear it.”
In other words, rock and roll is a never-ending relay race, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Many important bands from under the massive guitar pop umbrella I’ve constructed have albums celebrating big birthdays this year.
There are countless other releases I could have included, but below are the five that stood out to me (for today, at least). In that spirit, I’ve included a couple of other songs from each year to give a slightly more complete picture of what was happening.
It’s fascinating to see how each of these bands took some of those original ‘50s and ‘60s elements and combined them with a lot of influences from other decades—from soul, hard rock and punk, to grunge, alt rock and even ska—to make it their own.
We’ll start with 1974 and hop quickly forward a decade at a time from there.
So much great music, so little time…
Who Would You Add To The List?
Join the conversation in the comments.
Starting Over by Raspberries (1974)
“While there's no arguing Starting Over was the work of a very smart and gifted band, anyone who had been listening to their work already knew that. …it's a fine farewell from one of the best American pop bands of their era, though they didn't know it would be their last album when they were making it.” —Mark Deming, AllMusic
From The Same Year:
All Over The Place by The Bangles (1984)
“The uniform excellence of the songwriting (on All Over The Place) was due to the cohesive nature of the working relationship between the Bangles and their knowledge of each other’s strengths comes through vividly in the music too.” —Quentin Harrison, Albumism
From The Same Year:
File Under Easy Listening by Sugar (1994)
“With ‘Gift,’ ‘Gee Angel,’ and ‘Your Favorite Thing,’ File Under: Easy Listening contains three of Sugar's best songs. ‘Favorite’ in particular is as wonderfully evocative of modern rock radio in 1994 as R.E.M.'s ‘What's the Frequency, Kenneth?,’ Liz Phair's ‘Supernova,’ or Pavement's ‘Cut Your Hair.’” —Eric Harvey, Pitchfork
From The Same Year:
Me Too by Farrah (2004)
“Farrah play with poise and panache, serving up clean power pop of the highest order. (on Me Too) Their well-arranged infectious melodies feature smart (often wry) lyrics that skewer our world. These three-minute guitar pop jewels are executed with what seems to be effortless ease.” —PopMatters
From The Same Year:
Commonwealth by Sloan (2014)
“I’m not here today to convince you that Sloan’s Commonwealth is the Canadian quartet’s answer to The Beatles’ self-titled 1968 double LP. But surface similarities do exist.” —Bill Kopp, Musoscribe
The Posies, Big Star.
"Hero Takes A Fall"—mmmmwaaa! It's one of the most egregiously overlooked songs, in my opinion. For me, that is The Bangles. The more popular stuff is okay(ish), but this? Perfection. When I saw it was the same year as the Mats '"I Will Dare," I started thinking how great it would be to hear Susanna Hoffs sing some Westerberg tunes. That should happen.