The Power Ballad

Power ballads have become a staple in popular music over the last forty years.  The songs have taken different forms, including numbers by Barry Manilow, 1980s rock and heavy metal groups (Journey and Guns N’ Roses), Céline Dion, Whitney Houston, and Josh Groban.  Whatever genre they are in, power ballads are songs that build and build to ecstatic conclusions.  This podcast presents a history of the power ballad and ask what these songs say about us and the types of emotional experiences that we seek in popular music.