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To emphasize the emotional aspect of a power ballad, crowds customarily hold up lit lighters.^[1][2]

A power ballad is a song style frequently included on arena rock, hard rock and heavy metal albums in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s; the style has evolved into more modern forms since.

Power ballads are usually not so much ballads as they are love songs. They often explore sentimental themes such as heartache and need, love and loss. They are usually of confessional nature and differ from hard rock's more lyrical themes of sex, violence, and drugs. Power ballads became a staple in the 1980s and were immediately marketable to the public. A power ballad is usually featured near the end of an album as a wind down from the faster-paced songs that preceded it.

Typically, a power ballad begins with a soft keyboard or acoustic guitar introduction. Heavy drums and distorted electric guitars don't enter into the arrangement until the chorus or even later in the song.

Power ballads initially came into popularity at the insistence of a record company in hope of scoring a Top Forty hit, and in the genre's formative years were written only grudgingly by band members. However in recent years, power ballads have been re-imagined as something "authentic", rather than something "manufactured" (i.e. pushed onto bands by record labels).^{[citation needed]} In any event, power ballads were often a band's most (or only) commercially successful songs. Because of the perceived superficiality of their sentiment, though, power ballads were consistently despised by music critics, who rejected the way metal musicians actively borrowed the musical codes normally reserved for more "authentic" styles of rock.

An important precursor for the form was The Carpenters' Goodbye to Love single in 1972, which featured a fuzz-tone screaming guitar solo (by Tony Peluso) situated next to a "middle of the road" vocal.^[3]

Power ballads originated in the 1970s with power pop band The Raspberries and arena rock bands like Styx, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Def Leppard, Queen, and heavy metal pioneers Scorpions. Early examples of power ballads are "Don't Wanna Say Goodbye" from the Raspberries' debut album in 1972, The Raspberries, Styx's "Lady" from their 1973 album Styx II, Queen's "I'm in Love with My Car" from their 1975 album A Night at the Opera. As a solo artist, Raspberries lead singer and chief songwriter Eric Carmen continued to contribute to the genre by creating the #2 hit "All By Myself" in 1976.

In the 1980s, rock, hard rock and heavy metal bands began to climb the Billboard charts with power ballads, while MTV rotation fueled their popularity. Vandenberg charted in 1982 with "Burning Heart". Scorpions' "Still Loving You" and Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" both charted in 1984^[4][5], as did Dokken's "Alone Again" in 1985.^[6] Prince's "Purple Rain" stands as a prime example of a 1980s power ballad from a genre other than metal.

By the mid 1980s, the rise in popularity of the power ballad was signified with MTV's most requested video for four months straight,^[7] "Home Sweet Home" by Mötley Crüe, released in 1985 on the Theatre of Pain album. Many consider it the defining power ballad of the 1980s.

In the hard rock, heavy metal and arena rock genres, later developments of the style from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s are exemplified by such hits as the following:

For some 1970s arena rock artists, the power ballad was also responsible for helping to revive their careers in the 1980s; examples include Heart's "These Dreams" and Cheap Trick's "The Flame". After the release of Van Halen's "When It's Love", the term power ballad started to decline in use.

Artists outside of hard rock and heavy metal have also had success with power ballads:

The term power ballad is still used to this day in reference to songs such as:

Occasionally, the term is applied more generally to rock songs which start slowly and quietly and then gradually crescendo to a powerful, climactic end. This usage is far less common, however, and seems to be a retroactive application of the genre's name to pre-1980s album-oriented rock songs such as:

• Aerosmith
  • "Dream On"
• Led Zeppelin
  • "Stairway to Heaven"
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
  • "Free Bird"
• Queen
  • "We Are the Champions"
• The Who
  • "Behind Blue Eyes"

as well as to 1990s and 2000s songs like:

All of these songs vaguely fit the power ballad aesthetic but do not exhibit the sentimentality associated with 1980s power ballads. Instead, many of these better fit the category of rock anthem. Generally a power (or rock) ballad is considered suitable for slow dancing because of its slow beat.

In recent years, compilations of power ballads, including the Monster Ballads series and the Power Ballads - The Greatest Driving Anthems in the World... Ever! series, have become popular.

Despite the general sales boost associated with power ballads, most record labels feel that releasing a ballad in the fall or winter will help the single become a bigger commercial hit, as it fits the mood of the cold and dark setting of the season. It also helps sell the artist's album more if a ballad becomes a big hit during the holiday shopping season. RCA Records, whose artist roster includes Christina Aguilera ("Beautiful", "The Voice Within", "Hurt") and Kelly Clarkson, is known to use this to their advantage.