Don’t know them. I consider Styx a “guilty pleasure” band, and the only one I’m into amid all those '70s arena rockers like REO, Boston, Foreigner, Kansas, and Journey.
Well done! Was just coming back to post that, it eventually filtered to the top of my mind!
All though this thoroughly pains me to say this, one of my most favorite bands that has not been mentioned yet…The Alan Parsons Project…fits the description.
There, I said it.
No one’s mentioned Sugar Ray yet?
Well, you better take it back or I’ll tap you briskly with my Barry Manilow albums until you beg for mercy!
Oooo! Another Parsons fan! 
I think you could cut a line through people and bands more specifically grouped into the bubblegum style, especially Tommy Roe. You could veer into the lounge/easy listening style of the 60s and 70s, and go for people like Chris Montez and many of the people on the A&M label. Then you move into soft rock territory (many players already mentioned, like Bread and 10cc). Then into the 80s, you get britpop and the whole 4AD ethereal movement.
You’re definitely looking for trends within a style, but that style cuts through a number of specific movements and genres.
Soul Asylum. They sucked it hard and they sucked it way, way too long.
The Dandy Warhols.
A lot of the current west coast post-grunge punk (Blink, Charlotte, New Found Glory, Goldfinger…you name it)
Creed. Because Scott Stapp is a bitch.
Taking it back to the day, I would definitely include Dan Fogleburg.
As much as I love him, I gotta throw in John Denver, too.
The Monkees.
Any one of the dozens of Elvis clones the record companies tried to foist on the public.
Nope. Two words: Hang Time. I rest my case.
We need to agree on criteria for defining the term. Does wimp rock mean…
[ul]
The band members themselves are apparently wimps or wusses?
The lyrics contain a lot of wimpy whining, etc.?
The vocals are rather high-pitched and facile?
The music lacks “heaviness” regardless of how skillfully played it is?
The is music ameturishly played regardless of how heavy it is?
The band’s fan base is made up largely of wimps and wusses?
[/ul]
THis is a very GOOD list of criteria, actually.
The music I’m describing is the opposite of amateurish. It’s not like punk, “do-it-yourself” music, or heartfelt rockin’ blues. It’s the tightly organized, subtly-crafted music of soft-spoken intellectuals. Grandaddy is about the best example of it that I could think of.
I would mention the Decemberists, but I went to one of their shows and they rocked hard as all hell. Their poetic and historically-adept lyrics are brilliant, but their music is far from wussy.
When I use the word “wimp,” I’m semi-jokingly using it the way some cocky alpha-male type would use it. The band members don’t need to be wimps, but they would definitely sound like wimps. The high vocals are the key here.
The band’s fan base, likewise, isn’t neccesarily wimps, but they are the type of people that are more likely to have been called it in high school, for instance. Go to a hip-hop show or a Metallica concert and you’ll see lots of boppin’ and jivin’ alpha-male types throwing their hands up, posturing, trying to look like hardasses. Go to a “wimp rock” concert and you’ll see guys in glasses, sweater vests, or nondescript t-shirts. (Wide brush, yeah, but whatever.)
Okay if you’re talking about good bands like Belle and Sebastian as “wimp” rock I would look to The Housemartins, The Momas and the Papas and Nick Drake as precursors.
Maybe the Four Lads and definitely Buddy Holly and Simon and Garfunkle as well.
Nick Drake
dumb ol’ me, totally forgot Jonathan Richman.
So, him too.
For some contemporary wimp-rock, try Kings of Convenience. Seriously. Rainy day/cup of tea/sleeping cat/acoustic guitar-type stuff, at least the one album my wife has.
Before you get too involved in this project, you should check out this book first – if only to get a better fix on what you want to focus on, how one author has written a book addressing a similar theme, and how you would distinguish your book from his.
Good luck if you decide to go ahead anyway.
I’m drawing a comic, not writing a book. But this isn’t going to happen for a long time anyway. I’ve gotten pretty wrapped up in another project as of now.
Jimmy eat world are the epitome of the wimp rock you’re describing IMO (apologies if someone has mentioned them already and I missed it)
Lack of a strong personality is key here I think, names like Morrissey and Elvis Costello are miles away from the kind of low key, lets hang out at the punk rock bookstore vibe you’re talking about, they’re both titanic drama queens.
Go visit Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a week and go to as many coffee shops and shows as you can find (2 or 3 shows a night, every night). If it’s anything like it was when I hung out there in the past few years, you’ll have ALOT of wimp rock cartoon fodder 
Upon hearing any of these, my friends and I would compete to be the first to turn to the others and say, in a TV announcer voice:
“Try Grunge Lite! One-third less angst than your regular rebellious music”
Then we’d shout at each other: “Sounds great!” “Less rockin’ !” “Sounds great!” “Less rockin’ !”
Eh, it was a hobby… :dubious:
I dismiss all those post-Blink nasally, wussy, wannabe-punk bands as “mall-punk,” or “Hot Topic punk.”