Essential Seven ’80s Power Ballads

There’s just something about summer that makes me go back to those great (and not so great) power ballads of the 1980s. It may be that I spent most of my summers in the 1980s watching Mtv and riding around the neighborhood on my bike with a boom box blasting Motley Crue and Poison songs. Whatever it is, I do love a good power ballad on a hot summer day. Several summers ago, just as YouTube started up, I revisited many power ballad videos that I hadn’t seen in nearly 15 years and came to love the goofy world contained within them. In fact, after watching several of the videos on this list, I remember walking out to my car and wishing that I could stop in the middle of the road and shred a really awesome solo while wearing a leather duster without a shirt on underneath (the uniform required for a power ballad to assert one’s masculinity).

So, I thought it might be fun to compile my Essential Seven Power Ballads. Please note, I prefer to use the term “power ballad,” as opposed to “hair ballads,” as I would not call all of the bands on this list hair bands. Oh, and don’t tell me that I forgot Damn Yankees’ “High Enough.” It was released in 1990.

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