What Ever Happened To Power Ballads?

My daughter's school is doing the musical version of Footloose for their Spring musical. She's on the tech crew and really excited about it. A seminal pop culture touchstone for my generation, I'm curious to see how it translates both as a musical and on stage. The movie is a hard act to follow, especially when you consider the music. The other night we were on our way home from a birthday party listening to the soundtrack from the original movie. It's a banger and, from what I've gathered the musical borrows heavily from it, as it should. 

Shuffling through the songs, we landed on Almost Paradise featuring Mike Reno of Loverboy and Ann freaking Wilson from Heart, two mainstay bands of the 80s. I honestly never realized that it was Ann Wilson singing on this song until this week. It's a pretty good song. A little schmaltzy but it was the 80s, am I right? At one point during the song I said to my wife, "They don't make songs like this anymore." I have never sounded so old as I did at that moment. My wife agreed and I doubled down by saying that there were no real "power ballads" in music anymore. That made me a little sad as I thought about it. 

According to the always reliable TV Tropes website, a power ballad is "a slow and soft song using some of the bombastic elements of hard rock and heavy metal." You can read the carefully curated entry here, but user beware, spending time there is a lot like blacking out from drinking. One minute you are looking up power ballads and next thing you know three days have past and you wake up in Cleveland wearing someone else's underwear. 

I love me a good power ballad. Give me some Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Aerosmith, Garth Brooks, Chicago or Van Halen (mostly Van Hagar) any day of the week. Something that will blow me out of my shoes with its hard edged cheese. Can you name a blockbuster from the 80s and 90s that didn't have one of these sonic schmaltzfests attached to them? They were part of the very genetic make-up of those movies and, honestly, part of the success of such films. I'm not joking. Was there a bigger song that (Everything I Do) I Do It For You or My Heart Will Go On? I think not. You just don't see it anymore. It's a relic of another time. As Roland the Gunslinger says, the world has moved on. And that's a shame. What caused this? Why is this the case? Where has the power ballad gone? 

Sure, there are still musicals with massive, swelling ballads in them, and there are plenty of pop ballads that still make the round. But when was the last time we heard a song like I'll Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)? Sure Adele comes to mind. And Disturbed had their terrific cover of The Sound of Silence, but for the most part, this type of song has disappeared. Why?

Well, the erosion of rock as a musical genre certainly has something to do with it. There just aren't enough rock bands out their doing what they do anymore. Most of the rock bands today are those that appeal to people my age. I mean I went to see Bush three years ago (Glycerine is a prime example of a great power ballad) and realized that Gavin Rossdale was almost 60! (And still getting it done!) The older generation that cultivated this genre of music is moving on and no one has stepped in to fill the void. 

Gavin Rossdale wonders where all the power ballads have gone.

Younger pop stars like Ed Sheeran, Sabrina Carpenter, Bruno Mars, Billie Eilish, Benson Boone and ever Taylor Swift lack the gravitas for a power ballad. It's just not what they do. This is not to diminish their talent or abilities, they just don't have "it." They lack the oomph that is required for a good power ballad. And that's disappointing. 

So, music industry, you cowards, bring back the power ballad! I don't have a good ending for this, so as my friend Mark likes to say, "And then I found ten dollars."