A lurve ballad, pumped up with big drums and bombast; the recording equivalent of the "date movie". One of the lowest forms of schlock in pop. Championed by Clive Davis at Arista Records, it's a staple of many brand name artistes; in the 80's, it was also used to provide crossover hits to pop-metal Hair Bands, by making them accessible to suburban housewives. Avoid like the plague, or risk Bad Karma. You have been warned.

Power Ballad is also the name of a local group of human musical funhouses here in Vancouver. Comprising this group we have:

Curtis Gray - Due to an alphabetical coincidence we stood next to each other at our graduation ceremony from King George Secondary School.

Tom Tischer - Lucky bastard has a copy of the Spiderman movie poster with the World Trade Center on it.

Jesse Creed - One of my longest and best friends, he converted me from the status of Console Fanboy by gifting me my first PC. (And my 2^nd actually...)

Dan Lebofsky - Guitar player of god-like scope and scale. I don't know much else about him except that he's much better at skating than one might guess.

These are all awesome guys with whom much fun has been had by this writer. This is the only band I ever saw at Ms. T's Cabaret before it burned down, allegedly at the hands of some irresponsible hippy living in a nearby hostel. None the less, this current charcoal on that evening rocked to the sounds of Power Ballad, The Winks, and THE Shane Koyczan. I left with my world changed forever, confident that I would have to see these guys again soon. Well they must have hit it big time without me knowing because it seems as though they've fallen into that old game where a good band can't get the great work they could be doing done because the members can't seem to find the time. C'est la vie, I suppose...