[Adrian]

On my way to work today, I was reflecting on the dearth of epic powerballads lately. Shinedown's "If You Only Knew" is the closest I think mainstream music has gotten lately. So I decided to do some research.

Reading the wikipedia entry for Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell 3, and Jim Steinman says that "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" is his attempt to write "the most passionate, romantic song" possible.

As we're all fans of rock music, we all recognize some great power ballads: Always, November Rain, Faithfully, Bed Of Roses, Don't Cry, Open Arms, Everything I Do... the list goes on and on.

All these songs, they have a certain...something...that distinguishes them from your run of the mill, radio ballad. Besides (usually) song length, what is it? What is that SOMETHING that makes a power ballad epic? Some lyrical twist that makes them superior, a metaphor or style of writing? One particular power chord or guitar tuning? Someone's gotta have an idea...

Adrian

[C'monFeet]

Originally Posted by Adrian

All these songs, they have a certain...something...that distinguishes them from your run of the mill, radio ballad.

Emotionally, it's generally a combination of both love and loss - a yearning feeling (see Love Bites). Lyricly an instantly understandable, yet slightly abstract/arty way of expressing a universal emotion (see November Rain). Musically, some real power helps, strong, reiterated phrases, a great key-change, something people can share (say, I'll be There For You)...

With any good pop music, there's a magic though. It just needs to express something true in a way people can share.

[Jim Bon Jovi]

Simple

Big guitars and big drums.

I'm quite confident you could most traditional ballads into power ballads just by adding sme power chords and 80s drums to the arrangement. i might try it with ae fond kiss at some point actually.

I had to laugh at that Steinman quote though. unfortunately Celine gets a lot of play time on the rec PA here and it's all coming back to me has to be one of the most contrived "power ballad by numbers" out there imo.

[Rob]

For me the singer has a huge part to play. He needs to deliver the vocals with a lot of power and passion, rather like Jon did in the 80s and 90s. Jim is partly right about the drums and guitars, but in some instances a song doesn't always have to have big drums and loud guitars for it to be powerful. I can think of a couple of reasons why the Bon Jovi ballads from the last decade don't pack as much power as they did in the 80s and 90s. (A) The band's new agenda is to get away from all that, and (B) Jon's voice just can't deliver them anymore.