Actually, I'll bet there are way more people using the term "power pop" than were using the terms "punk rock" and "garage rock" prior to 1976. So if enough people think it's a genre then I guess it is. I mean, rock critics count as people. Still, it seems to have always lived its life in the territory of punk/new wave/postpunk/indie. And I'm not so fond of the term (or fond of it at all) as to need to steal it or liberate it, anyway; though I wouldn't mind if at some time there were enough of an attack on (conventionally defined) power pop's claim to power to hurt the people who are enamored of the genre.

Does your friend Mary have an opinion of Kix? Has she heard Kix?

And what do you suppose she'd think of Crayon Pop's "Bar Bar Bar"?