Power ballads didn’t disappear when the lighters went away — they just continued to evolve.

This week, I’m joined by Terrie Carr of Carr Stereo to explore 10 power ballads released after 2000 — songs that still build slow, hit hard, and aim straight for the chest, even if the glow in the crowd looks a little different now.

From massive choruses to emotional gut-punches, these are the songs that prove the power ballad never lost its place — it just traded Bic lighters for phone screens and kept going. No era restrictions, no genre snob ...