In the early days of my old band, we tried to coin a name for the kind of music we played. We knew we had (hopefully) catchy melodies complimented by loud guitars. I came up with "Loud Pop" to describe the sound but the other guys felt it might be taken too literally, as in the sound of a loud pop. Pop!
In hindsight, the term I was probably looking for was Power Pop. And what a great genre it is. So much of my favourite music can be summed up by this term. Here are some great examples of the genre. Mostly old and some new.
I let the "labels" on the post be my limiting factor, which only means one thing: this won't be the last loud pop post.
Jellyfish "The King is Half Undressed"
Jellyfish "That is Why"
Jellyfish "The Ghost at # 1"
Jellyfish "New Mistake"
Cheap Trick "Dream Police"
Cheap Trick "Reach Out"
Badfinger "No Matter What"
Big Star "When My Baby's Beside Me"
Big Star "September Gurls"
The Cars "Let's Go"
Nick Lowe "Cruel to be Kind"
The Knack "My Sharona"
The Romantics "What I Like About You"
The Vapors "Turning Japanese"
The Smithereens "A Girl Like You"
Material Issue "Kim the Waitress"
The Pursuit of Happiness "When the Sky Comes Falling Down"
The Pursuit of Happiness "Beautiful White"
Odds "Love is the Subject"
Odds "It Falls Apart"
Squeeze "Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)"
Sugar "Gee Angel"
Sugar "Believe What You're Saying"
Sugar "A Good Idea"
Sugar "If I Can't Change Your Mind"
Bob Mould "See A Little Light"
Bob Mould "Circles"