Well, the power ballad originated as a ballad done by a hard rock band and so naturally included certain default hard rock band elements, but over the years of its dominance it changed (or reinvented) the ballad form, and when you do a ballad the power-ballad way, even if you don't have distorted guitars, it's still sorta a power ballad. Really, someone should come up with a better term for it, but...
So, for instance, "Beautiful." The chorus makes it a power(-ish) ballad because it uses a fairly direct chord progression and switches to a major feel and is defiant in tone. REM's is belty and does have distorted guitars. (Recall the bridge.) The anthemic feel that wasn't really a part of the ballad vocabulary previously (or only tangentially) is what makes it power now, maybe.
"Don't Speak" is just a power ballad because it's a ballad by a rock band, I don't think it's particularly power-y.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-04-17 08:21 pm (UTC)So, for instance, "Beautiful." The chorus makes it a power(-ish) ballad because it uses a fairly direct chord progression and switches to a major feel and is defiant in tone. REM's is belty and does have distorted guitars. (Recall the bridge.) The anthemic feel that wasn't really a part of the ballad vocabulary previously (or only tangentially) is what makes it power now, maybe.
"Don't Speak" is just a power ballad because it's a ballad by a rock band, I don't think it's particularly power-y.