[I associate power ballads with the preening rock bands of the 70s and 80s. Apparently, though, those acts were late to the party. This is from MelMagazine.com. AC]

When the great chronicle of human civilization comes to be written, the 1980s will go down as the decade when we had everything in our grasp but let it all go. So many self-inflicted threats were allowed to escalate unchecked during that time, and were now all being forced to live with their consequences: Nuclear proliferation, global carbon emissions, free-market capitalism, and most monstrous of all, adult-oriented power ballads. Its virtually impossible to explain exactly how the first three Promethean nightmares came about. But with the last one, as a runaway outgrowth of deeply misguided pop-culture trends, we can at least attempt to trace its origins in the hope that it will never happen again.

First off, for a culture that daily had to deal with the risk of Cold War annihilation, the popularity of a musical style desperately reaching for immortality makes a lot of sense. Traditionally, the power balladeers sing of an emotional Valhalla where flames are eternal, feelings are boundless and everything everybloody thing that pops into their heads has to be forever. Power ballads are pop-cultures response to the abyss, which is probably why theyre often so abysmal.

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How did such an affected, risible, ultimately silly formula ever get to be so popular? And which needy, over-earnest songwriters should we hold directly responsible?

Keep reading.

See the article here:

Wait: The power ballad is more than 1,000 years old? - A Journal of Musical Things