Got Yacht Rock?

[Rick63]

Boating rock?

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JSmith

Given my bank account I'd be a raft rocker if anything. Something like this.

 

[Rick63]

I think the Little River Band was/is the epitome of the "genre".

 

[EJ3]

I was today years old when I learned of the term "Yacht rock." I had no idea that was a thing, and a large thing too. Watched a documentary about it last night, and learned a lot!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34280353/

It says that it dominated the AM airwaves. But FM was where the action was if we are talking about music and radio.

 

[EJ3]

I think the Little River Band was/is the epitome of the "genre".

That is because that they were Reminiscing that they once had a couple of good songs.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

they are essentially all the same song

Listerners must have enjoyed the song as the album was highly successful in terms of sales and critics as well.

At the end of the day all music is subjective and meant for enjoyment. It's like debating which color is best.

 

[Chr1]

Ahem. Guilty. Two of my yachty faves...

 

[pinger]

Never heard the term "yacht rock" but of course all of these bands I've heard of. Steely Dan doesnt deserve to be grouped with these bands though. Much better along with the Eagles

 

[Mart68]

Never heard the term "yacht rock" but of course all of these bands I've heard of. Steely Dan doesnt deserve to be grouped with these bands though. Much better along with the Eagles

And the Doobies. At least their early stuff.

 

[-Matt-]

Not exactly rock but Yacht Rock always makes me think of this...

 

[Leporello]

Steely Dan may sound a lot like yacht rock as long as you do not pay attention to the lyrics. But after that the polished sound and hyper production will appear different too.

 

[Mart68]

Steely Dan may sound a lot like yacht rock as long as you do not pay attention to the lyrics. But after that the polished sound and hyper production will appear different too.

The 'hyper production' is really only the last 4 albums. 'Aja' onwards. 'Aja' isn't really that polished compared to showcase productions from about the late 1980s onwards anyway. At the time it stood out a bit.

 

[digitalfrost]

I wonder if the video clip below is from that documentary? Donald Fagen, Steely Dan doesn't have much good to say about that term; Yacht Rock.

To expand on this:

Rick Beato’s basic point is that the term “Yacht Rock” is lazy and insulting. He argues that the HBO documentary lumps together a lot of very different late-70s/early-80s music — Steely Dan, Toto, Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Ambrosia, etc. — under one jokey label that started as internet parody, not serious musical history.

His objection is not to the artists or even to the documentary existing. It is that the label flattens the music. In his view, much of this was not “soft rock” background music for boats, but highly sophisticated jazz-rock, R&B, gospel, funk, folk, and studio-musician-driven pop. He points to Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne” and “Aja,” Toto’s “Rosanna” and “Hold the Line,” and Christopher Cross’s “Ride Like the Wind” as examples of music built by elite players, with serious grooves, solos, arrangements, and harmonic ideas.

He also says the documentary cherry-picks songs and personalities that fit the “Yacht Rock” narrative, especially Michael McDonald/Kenny Loggins, while leaving out key musicians like Chuck Rainey, Bernard Purdie, Larry Carlton, Steve Gadd, Wayne Shorter, and others whose contributions show how deep and musically serious this era really was.

 

[Chris A]

I guess the first question I have is:"why does anyone care about that kind of 45 year-old music, except the people that lived through that era as teens and young adults?".

Then I would ask: "why would anyone have an axe to grind for what genre(s) it's called?". I do see music being mixed together that I never liked--with music that I still like. That should be a clue that something isn't quite right with trying to lump everything together under one "derogatory" tag.

As far as I can tell, the concept of genre in music has basically lost its utility that it once had. Nowadays, the succeeding generations of music genre "assigners" has basically made the concept useless.

Why does any of this matter? The music didn't change...

Chris

 

[Tre2023]

Hated the term “Yacht Rock” not too many years ago when I first heard it and still hate it. It diminishes those who produced that music to a bunch of hacks and those who enjoy it to a bunch of posers looking for background music while basking in the sun on the back of their, well, yachts.

As others have mentioned, this kind of music was called “Soft Rock” once upon a time. When I want to stream it myself when using a service and not selecting specific albums, I search for “70’s Soft Rock”

No doubt, those who came up with “Yacht Rock” had an axe to grind with parents who enjoyed “Soft Rock” and called their kids’ music “Noise.” Life goes on. Soon, a new generation will rename it all to something even more ridiculous.

Now, if you all will excuse me, I’m going to go listen to Ambrosia with no shame at all because “That’s how much I feel…”

 

[Timcognito]

Why does any of this matter? The music didn't change...

Dentists need it for their offices. I can't imagine have having my teeth drilled without some Doobie Bros or Madonna in the background.

 

[tineared]

To expand on this:

Rick expresses my sentiments very well. There is no such thing as yacht rock. It's just an expression which will deservedly fade into oblivion...

 

[Chris A]

As others have mentioned, this kind of music was called “Soft Rock” once upon a time.

I called much of it "jazz fusion", or just fusion. The balance was called "rock" or just "pop" (see my first link, above).

Negative comments today about music from 45 years ago in this argument doesn't excuse the mess we have with today's music genres...

Dentists need it for their offices. I can't imagine have having my teeth drilled without some Doobie Bros or Madonna in the background.

I don't hear this music in my dentist's office. If I did, I'd probably go back a little more often

As it stands, I really don't listen to the vast bulk of what passes for popular music today. But I do listen to new classical and jazz that I haven't heard before, as well as other music still identified by the old tags (with the exception of country+western).

Rick expresses my sentiments very well. There is no such thing as yacht rock...

I remember the first time I heard the expression in the early '80s, when applied to only two artists: Christopher Cross and later, Jimmy Buffett--which are completely different genres. Therefore, I dismissed the term then.

Nowadays, a single musical artist can span two or more microgenres that are assigned to no other artist. 6037 identified microgenres is like having none at all...

Chris

 

[flightops]

I dig yacht rock. It suggests an image of people of a certain age who still have their health and their wealth.

I think it is a BS term to call 40 year old songs ‘contemporary’. This music is dated. Like from a time when sailboats were popular.

No, you selectively chose what to address to fit your agenda, That is not what I a said. I said:

USED to be called adult contemporary.

Which is exactly how it was originally referred to as a genre, aong with other terms like soft rock, etc.

Yacht rock is just lazy and meant to be condescending because of some perceived bias of it as being "old" or "out of step".

It's the same mentality as the back when all the troglodytes were screaming "disco sucks" and burning things like stevie wonder as "disco".

Music is music, whether you like it or not is irrelevant.

 

[EJ3]

Dentists need it for their offices. I can't imagine have having my teeth drilled without some Doobie Bros or Madonna in the background.

Or when getting a MRI!

 

[Soandso]

Welllll, then there's a big bucks angle:

Screen shot above is as written in author Jordan Harper's fast paced fictional novel about scandalous contemporary Southern California titled "Everybody Knows"; page 8.