These songs have launched careers and inspired fans across the globe to raise their lighters (and later, cell phones) into the air. No era embraced power ballads more than the ’80s, a time ...

The band teased their hair and broke big with this schlocky power ballad, an MTV favorite and car ride sing-a-long staple that made it all the way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in fall 1989.

Musicologist David Metzer calls this power ballad a 'continuous escalation' - and probably the key to its massive success is the way it builds more than most as it starts with such with such a ...