Just So We’re Clear
By Mitch Berg
I detest the term “Yacht Rock”.
No. Detest.
I never could quite articulate why – it was one of those definitions I figured I’d get around to someday when I had a moment.
Fortunately, Rick Beato did it for me:
Like Beato, the term is hereby and henceforth expunged from my life.
January 3rd, 2025 at 8:34 am
Barbara Streisand is calling. This nothing term that you and Rick are so against would still be nothing – I’d never heard of it until this post – if you didn’t draw attention to it.
January 3rd, 2025 at 8:48 am
It’s hardly a “nothing” term. Its all over music fandom – or at least the parts of it I (and Beato) swim in.
January 3rd, 2025 at 9:48 am
OK, you piqued my interest. The term apparently comes from a mockumentary series of the same name which never actually uses the term during the 12 episodes. It actually looks pretty amusing (8.7 rating on IMDB). The producers/creators were just having fun with a musical genre they like – I’m guessing they’re either young GenXers or Millennials and didn’t grow up with this music. BTW, John Oates credited Yacht Rock with rekindling interest in Hall & Oates and introducing them to a younger audience and Michael McDonald praised the series in a 2008 interview.
This isn’t the first time I’ve watched Beato get bent out of shape over something trivial. Whatever, carry on.
PS I will admit I have seen the term used on videos from a band of CT high school and college kids who do really well-done covers of music from the 70s. Their most recent videos are termed “college yacht rock”, but they’re filmed near water, like a marina or something. I just figured the yacht rock had something to do with that. I guess I learned something new.
Ms Streisand gave me a thumbs up.
January 3rd, 2025 at 10:24 am
Posts like this make me feel old. I recognize the words but not the meaning.
Yacht rock? Is that pulled from the Carly Simon song: you walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht? Is it something to do with beach life, maybe pulling your yacht up to the dock at Margaritaville while us drunks on the veranda snicker at your lack of boat handling skills?
Hall and Oates? Haven’t thought about them since Rich Girl when I was in high school. And they have something do with yachts? Bewildering.
Personally, I suspect it’s all an enormous joke but nobody gets it. There’s no such thing as “yacht” rock, it’s Throatwarbler Mangrove rock, which makes just as much sense and is a lot funnier.
January 3rd, 2025 at 1:08 pm
Bigman: While it’s hard to describe what kind of sound makes a song “Yacht Rock”, here is a pretty definitive list of the songs considered to be “Yacht Rock”
https://www.yachtornyacht.com/
Personally, I think “Sailing” by Christopher Cross should be #1. It has the sound, it is of the right time period, and the subject matter is perfect. Also IMO, tied for #1 should be Southern Cross by CSN. Same reasons.
Glaring omission from the list: Wildfire by Michael Martin Murphy. It has the time period and sound, but the subject matter is dark. I think YR as a genre is intended to be light hearted, so I can understand if that’s why it’s not on there.
January 3rd, 2025 at 2:15 pm
Bill C… Wildfire is also one of the most punishing earworms known to man. Just saying the title itself invokes excruciatingly painful sing-a-longs by people not as good as MMM.
January 3rd, 2025 at 9:24 pm
Heres my recording i did in my hone studio of said tune…
Wildfire
https://youtu.be/IkTrLiqVJH8?si=IVjUqWcoX091uS7p
January 5th, 2025 at 6:14 pm
What the fuck is “yacht rock”?
…”we’ll get back to that”
January 6th, 2025 at 4:18 pm
I mean, did you watch the video?
“Yacht Rock” appears to be most mainstream seventies pop. #shrug