Jangle pop is a genre of
alternative rock from the early-to-mid-1980s that "marked a return to the chiming or jangly guitars and pop melodies of the '60s", as exemplified by
The Byrds, with
electric twelve-string guitars and straightforward,
power pop-inspired song structures. Mid-1980s jangle pop, epitomised by bands such as
The Smiths, was a non-mainstream "pop-based format" with "some folk-rock overtones". Between 1983 and 1987, the description "jangle pop" was, in the US, used to describe bands like
R.E.M.,
Let's Active and
Tom Petty as well as a subgenre called "
Paisley Underground", which incorporated psychedelic influences. In the UK, the term was applied to the new wave of raw and immediate sounding melodic guitar-bands collected on the
NME's
C86 (and later
CD86) compilations.