Modulation / key changes have been used in music for ages but the style I’m talking about is the distinctive last verse (or chorus) sudden key change up to power through to the end. Seems to have come about sometime in the 60s/70s and was everywhere in the 80s onwards.
Examples:
Heaven is a place on earth - Belinda Carlisle
I will always love you - Whitney Houston
But who popularised it? What was the first big song to do it and set the style for the genre?
Like most others here, I don’t have an answer for you. I just wanted to share that I feel songs using this gimmick are lazy attempts to pad the length of the song. Nothing prompts me to change the channel or skip ahead faster.
Some certainly do. But it also creates a distinct emotional feel which may also be a legitimate intention.