In the wikipedia entry for "ballad" there's the image with caption to the left. Am I weird for finding that just really, really, funny? I start having these weird flashbacks to lots of pink hair,screaming weirdos, and Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Am I the only one who feels that the fashions and styles of the 70s and 80s were just way stranger than those of the 50s and 60s? Or is it just that the 50s and 60s are so far back that we've forgotten their own variant of Cherry Pie?
I always thought it was iffy, all those naked flames and all that hair-spray... I'm surprised that there was never a major stadium fire disaster.
And of course there were loads of really dodgy ballads in the 50s and 60s - examples which immediately leap to mind would include such "classics" as Tell Laura I Love Her and Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town...
See Laver's law.