Power Pop Essay Collections
‘Go All The Way’ and ‘Go Further’ feature essays by authors, musicians, music writers and fans of the rock music sub-genre
Fun, bright, and playful, Power Pop is a sometimes adored, sometimes maligned, often misunderstood genre of music. From its heyday in the seventies and eighties to its resurgence in the nineties and aughts, Power Pop has meant many things to many people.
In Go All The Way and Go Further, today’s best and brightest writers go deep on what certain Power Pop bands and songs mean and have meant to them. Whether they love or hate it, these two essay collections are a dive into the Beatles-inspired pop rock of the last five decades.
1. Go All The Way: Literary Appreciations of Power Pop
Heather Havrilesky on Blondie
Carrie Courogen on Liz Phair
Michael Chabon on Big Star
Jeff Rougvie on Cheap Trick
David Yaffe on XTC
Kate Sullivan on Jeff Lynne and ELO
Dylan Champion on Guided By Voices
Joe Clifford on The Hold Steady
David Bash on His So-Called (Power Pop) Life
Justin Fielding on The Road to Power Pop
Paul Myers on Sloan
Jeff Whalen on Power Pop as Beatles Obsession
S. W. Lauden on Fountains of Wayne
Ira Elliot on Putting the Pow! in Power Pop
Rex Weiner on September Gurls
Marko DeSantis on Surrender
Ken Sharp on The Secret Power Pop History of KISS’s Paul Stanley
Tom Petty on The Strange Magic of Jeff Lynne (as told to Ken Sharp)
John M. Borack on The Women of Power Pop
Dave Holmes on Tommy Keene
Daniel Brummel on Weezer
Nancy Rommelmann on Analog Anthems
Allison Anders on Nick Lowe’s Pub Rock Roots
Annie Zaleski on How Jelly Fish Changed the Game
Chris Holm on The Brainy Power Pop of Allan Carl Newman
Scott Miller excerpts from Music: What Happened?
Kurt Baker on Pop Punk to Power Pop
Available wherever books are sold—including:
Indiebound
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Rare Bird
Live near a cool Indie bookstore? They can order it for you too!
2. Go Further: More Literary Appreciations of Power Pop
Ira Robbins on Priming The Power Pop Pump
Alex Segura on the Ramones & the Archies
Mary E. Donnelly on Shoes
Pat DiPuccio on Greg Shaw & Bomp Records
John Borack on the Shivvers
Dave Hill on Glitter And Glue
Will Birch on the Records
S.W. Lauden on 20/20
Jordan Oakes on Power Pop’s first fanzine, Yellow Pills
Brian Vander Ark on Andy Partridge/XTC
Anne K. Ream & R. Clifton Spargo on Teenage Fanclub
Chip Jacobs on Squeeze
Bill DeMain’s Greetings From Pop Music City, USA
Thierry Côté on Pag
Doug Brod on Into The Arena
Jim Lindberg on the Replacements
Balin Schneider on The Material Issue story
Mike Randle on Baby Lemonade & Love
Butch Walker on Marvelous 3
Andrea Warner on Puffy AmiYumi
Paul Myers on Los Anglophiles
Rex Broome’s Ode on a Rickenbacker
Available wherever books are sold—including:
Indiebound
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Rare Bird
Live near a cool Indie bookstore? They can order it for you too!
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