>Mostly, I hate ballads. It’s like poetry. It’s sappy and usually annoying. Granted, there are a few power ballads that I do like being that I’m a child of the 80s… Love Song by Tesla, Waiting for a Girl Like You by Foreigner, High Enough by Damn Yankees, Sister Christian by Night Ranger, I Remember You by Skid Row, and Alone by Heart. Wow, if that list doesn’t trigger your inner armchair psychologist, nothing will.
OK, so some of those songs are pretty sappy, but throw in a guitar solo or two and it negates the sappiness with rock.
Because I’m never sure of the definition of a power ballad, and I don’t trust Wikipedia, I looked at iTunes to see what they listed as a power ballad in their essentials area. I wouldn’t exactly call Pat Benatar’s We Belong a power ballad. It’s a good song, but I tend to think of a power ballad as being exclusively by a band from the hard rock genre or hair metal if you will. Again, Black Velvet by Alannah Myles is stretching the definition. Then again what is the definition of a power ballad? Being that I’m a dork, I Googled it to see what the Internet had to say about it:
If you can’t read that teeny writing and are too lazy to click on it, I’ll translate:
Power Ballad – An emotional rock song, generally focused on love, delivered with powerful vocals.
I suppose that’s pretty close, but I still have a hard time accepting Bryan Adams, John Waite or Cher as having a power ballad.